


Kirby's Insane Halloween!

by ClaudeLv250



Series: Kirby's Insane Holidays [1]
Category: Kirby (Video Games), Super Smash Brothers, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, But Not That Spooky, Gen, Ghosts, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Humor, Spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 03:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5114141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaudeLv250/pseuds/ClaudeLv250
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twelve Smashers. One haunted house. Zero plot! - Okay, I lied. There's a plot.</p><p>While enjoying Hyrule's suspiciously-similar-to-Halloween Poe Festival, several of the Smashers enter a real haunted house believing it to be an attraction. To their detriment (and the delight of the spirits within), they learn the truth the hard way, and the only way they can escape the house intact is to solve its mysterious, 50 years old tragedy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fortunes

**Author's Note:**

> Introduction: I had wanted to write a Halloween special based on my Kirby's Insane Journey Smash Bros series, and this was the first one I wrote awhile back. I think it's pretty easy to get into without having read the other stories. It's silly and fun, but there's some heart at the core of the story, so enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: Super Smash Brothers and all Nintendo related things are property of Nintendo. I whipped up the original characters including myself, sorta, the fictional version of me, not the real me, because that would be weird...

“What the hell kind of fortune is that?!” The green dinosaur pouted, giving the old woman a relentless scowl. The woman’s only response was silence as she returned to her routine, her frail and thin fingers whirling about the crystal ball in a practiced pattern.

“We’re sorry,” Zelda apologized to the woman. “Yoshi can be a bit rude but I do agree with him. You’ve been giving us vague and cryptic fortunes all night.”

“My fortunes,” the old woman’s trembling voice began, “are the way that they are...in order to protect your futures.”

Yoshi shifted angrily in his seat. “What’s the point of knowing the future if you don’t really KNOW it?!” He was ready to explode.

“Waste of time. This woman’s a con.” Samus’s annoyed expression was well hidden behind the green visor, although her tone was not. She had been against going to the fortuneteller from the start and only entered the tent because she didn’t want to stand alone outside.

“Samus...please don’t go on another one of your anti-psychic tirades again,” Kirby pleaded. She had gone off before when it was suggested that they check the fortuneteller’s tent out.

“So...is that all you have to tell us?” Zelda asked the old woman. The soothsayer didn’t seem to acknowledge her question at first, getting two skeptical looks in the process, but finally replied.

“I will give you two more fortunes,” her dry voice cracked. There was silence once again as the old woman seemed to be in her own world.

“Did she just fall asleep!?” Yoshi bellowed in near-outrage, only to be shushed by Kirby and Zelda.

“You will be visited by a being from another realm...” she said abruptly, gaining everyone’s attention.

“...and the second fortune?” Samus questioned, still annoyed with the situation.

“Avoid the house. It holds a painful history of betrayal.”

“...that’s it? Such a waste of time...” the bounty huntress muttered.

“Thank you, Madam Baker,” Zelda said, placing a blue rupee onto the table.

“Finally!” Yoshi exclaimed. “We can get out of this dump!” He jumped out of his seat and followed Samus out of the small tent.

“Jeez!” Kirby sighed when they were all outside. “You guys put up such a fuss in there! It was embarrassing.”

“Maybe because we can smell BS a mile away!” Yoshi complained.

“The woman’s fortunes were clearly fake,” Samus stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe.

Zelda frowned. “Well, we came to this festival to have fun! If you didn’t want to see the fortune teller, you should have gone with the others!”

As if on cue, Marth, Captain Falcon, Link, his younger counterpart, Fox, Iris, and their son rounded the corner.

“Hey guys!” Iris called, leading the group with the rolling baby stroller in her hands. “How’d it go at Madam Baker’s tent?”

“Horrible,” Samus answered quickly before either Kirby or Zelda could get a word in.

“Nothing interesting?” Captain Falcon asked with a bit of interest, digging through a bag of candy.

“Madam Faker told a bunch of stupid fortunes,” Yoshi replied, the mere memory bringing a scowl back to his face.

“Like what?” Falcon asked after stuffing his face with candy corn. Marth had the luck of being assaulted by the chewed bits of candy that flew out of Captain Falcon’s mouth in the process.

“‘You will be visited by a being from another realm’,” Kirby recited. Yoshi rolled his eyes.

The night sky was cloudless, giving a full few of the stars. Oddly enough, it rippled and glowed until a beam of data shot out of the sky and landed right ahead of the group. The data took the form of a young man, and a face familiar to them all.

“Claude, what are you doing here?!” Captain Falcon exclaimed, spraying Marth with another burst of half-eaten candy corn.

“I decided to write myself in again. Hahaha!”

They all looked puzzled. “What...?”

“Fourth wall joke, you’re not supposed to get it,” the author said. “Besides, after you told me about the Poe Festival, why wouldn’t I be here? Sounds a lot like Halloween. But...I thought you don’t wear costumes here?” He asked, looking Captain Falcon over.

“You don’t,” Fox replied, punching Falcon in the back of his helmet.

“Hey, don’t mess up the outfit!” Falcon whined. “I spent 2 hours working on this!”

Glued on top of his gloves were two pincers made out of cardboard painted a dark green in color. They were indefinitely open so it gave his hands easy access to the bag of candy he was shuffling through again. Something that looked like the head of a mantis with big yellow eyes sat on the front of his helmet. On his boots was more green cardboard, with something resembling scales hastily drawn over it with black crayon.

Claude folded his arms in amusement. “So what are you supposed to be?”

“I’m a Space Pirate! Arrrgh!”

“Space Pirates don’t say ‘Argh’,” Samus corrected him.

“Of course they do! They’re pirates. Arrrgh!”

“Oh, what would I know? I’ve only slain a few hundred of them.”

“HEY!” Falcon screamed, suddenly excited. “I think that fortune came true!”

Marth had enough. “Captain Falcon, PLEASE! Do not talk when your mouth is full of food!”

“Oh...sorry...” he said sheepishly before offering some candy corn. Marth wordlessly declined by moving as far away as possible.

“I hate to say it, but I think Captain Falcon is right about the fortune,” Kirby said, attempting to avoid any eye contact with Falcon as to not give him any ideas.

Samus chuckled. “No, this only proves that the woman is a fraud. It’s not like word of a kid from Earth helping us in the past hasn’t spread around like wildfire. People don’t just hop-skip dimensions and never get noticed.”

Before Claude could ask, Zelda caught him up, “We went to see a fortune teller a few minutes ago. Samus and Yoshi were against it from the start and are determined to prove that Madam Baker is a con artist.”

“Hah!” Yoshi pointed at her accusingly. “‘Con artist’ implies that the woman actually has skill at what she does, but I saw right through her from the start!”

Samus nodded. “We should burn her tent to the ground while we still have the chance.”

“Samus!” Zelda gasped. “I’ve never heard you speak like that, and about that poor old woman, too...”

“You know, even though my exterior doesn’t suggest it, I myself am quite capable of sarcasm,” Samus said dryly.

Fox growled with impatience. “Are you people going to stand here bitching and moaning about some raggedy hag for the rest of the night or are we actually going to do something else before the festival is over?”

Marth agreed, picking a leftover piece of candy corn from his hair with visible disgust. “Fox, though unnecessarily crass and brazen, is correct. We are wasting time standing here.”

“Okay then,” Zelda said, opening a small map, “where to next?”

“I want to go to the haunted house!” Young Link said, bouncing with excitement and pointing to a spot on the map.

Claude shrugged. “Why not? The haunted houses here have to be better than the ones back on Earth.”

“No objections? Then off to the haunted house we go!” Zelda led the group with the map, leading them farther and farther away from the tents full of attractions.

It wasn’t until five minutes into the walk that everyone started to notice that they were far away from civilization. Their view was clouded with a thick fog, and the trees became far and few between, looking deader and rotted for years with each passing.

“Are we lost?” Young Link asked.

Zelda checked the map again. “No...we’re going in the right direction. The haunted house attraction is away from the fun and games.”

“Well they’ve really gone all out for the atmosphere,” Samus commented. “The fog is a little too dense for my liking.”

“Is that it ahead?” Young Link pointed.

“I think it is!” Zelda said, picking up the pace.

The group approached the building, which was placed squarely in the densest part of the fog. They stood outside of the black, rusted gates, looking up to the large, looming structure sitting atop the hill, above the fog and in clear view. The windows were stained and the shutters old and worn. The wood of the house was as gnarled as the trees in the yard, swallowed by the tall, unkempt grass that hadn’t been attended to for decades.

“That’s not a house...that’s a mansion, and it’s huuuuge!” Young Link said, stretching his arms out wide for emphasis.

“I’m impressed,” Samus said, peering through the iron bars. “I wasn’t expecting the haunted house to look this genuine. No wonder it’s the most popular attraction.”

The gate doors creaked open, inviting everyone into the darkness of the front lawn and up the twisting trail leading to the mansion.

“Mechanical...” Samus muttered in response to the frightened looks on Young Link and Captain Falcon’s faces.

“Well, you guys go on ahead,” Iris said, sitting on a bench next to the gates. “A haunted house is no place for James.” She grabbed the young fox from his stroller and held him in her arms.

“Yeah, haunted houses aren’t my thing either,” Fox said, taking a seat next to Iris and wrapping his arm around.

Yoshi cackled with glee. “I can understand Iris staying behind, but Fox...are you...chicken?” He cheerfully awaited an agitated response until Samus swiftly slapped him across the face. “Hey, what was that for?!”

“Stop bothering Fox,” Samus chastised. “Can’t you see that he wants to spend time with his lady and their son? That’s probably the only reason he even came to the festival.”

“You have to ruin everything, don’t you?” Yoshi complained as the remaining nine ventured up the winding trail to the mansion.

“I have been pondering this for awhile,” Marth spoke up halfway up the trail. “But what is the point of this haunted house attraction?”

“I’ll handle this one,” Claude said, “when you go inside the house, its set up so it can scare you. You know, dark rooms, things jumpin’ out at you, people in makeup and costumes...”

“And...people find this entertaining?” Marth asked, skepticism written all over his face.

“It’s all in good fun, Marth,” Samus assured him. “It’s really about getting into the mood. If you approach it with a cynical attitude, you’re probably not going to enjoy it much.” She looked out of the corner of her visor to find Kirby fidgeting. “And what’s wrong with you?”

Kirby looked up. “Me?”

“You only fidget and squirm like that when there’s something you want to say.”

“Oh...well,” Kirby said, looking around nervously, “I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed.”

“You mean the two sets of yellow eyes in the grass?” Zelda asked. “They’ve been following us since we started up the trail. I’m sure that’s just part of the atmosphere.”

“No, I mean the last fortune. ‘Avoid the house.’” Kirby then flinched as he knowingly set off a bomb.

“If Madam Faker said it, then that’s all the more reason why we should go to the house!” Yoshi declared. “I’m not letting that hag ruin my evening!”

Naturally, Samus agreed on the subject. “She probably tells that to all of her customers, to avert traffic to her tent from the haunted house so that she can rip more people off.”

Kirby rolled his eyes. “What eyes were you talking about, Zelda?”

“Those over there,” she pointed. “In the tall grass.”

Two sets of bright yellow eyes peered at the oddball group from the depths of the grass. They were trained on them intently, never blinking or turning away.

Young Link moved closer to Zelda. “I don’t like those eyes...” The older Link looked down and shook his head in embarrassment.

“Like I said, it’s all part of the atmosphere...” she said, trying to reassure the child...as well as herself.

“I don’t know, guys,” Captain Falcon said meekly. “I’m feeling a little creeped out right now...” He grabbed Samus’s free hand and hid slightly behind her bulky figure.

“Some Space Pirate you turned out to be,” Samus joked.

“Maybe they’re dogs...or wolves...” Kirby proposed quietly as the eyes grew larger.

In actuality, they were getting closer to the trail and the creatures...or creature, rather, was finally revealed. It raised its body above the grass, standing tall on its four legs. The two sets of eyes belonged to the one monster, set firmly atop the snout that was frequently assaulted by the long, thrashing tongue. The monster looked slack jawed as it seemed impossible for it to close its maw, the jaw swinging separately from the creature’s body movements.

Everyone was taken aback, and Claude was the first one to speak. “That ain’t no damn wolf!”

Zelda tried to calm everyone down. “I think in this situation it would be best if everyone would...RUN!”

And ran they did, as the group of nine made a mad dash for the mansion. Men, armor-clad women, dinosaurs, and pink puffballs things all ran for their lives like maniacs and through the opening doors of the haunted mansion. As they shut the doors, thunder rumbled in the distance; a sinister cue to start a night they would never forget.

“Fox,” Iris said, curiously looking over her back and through the black bars of the gate.

“Mmm?” He replied, playing with baby James.

If he had looked, he would have seen the worried look on her face. “...where did the house go?”

“What do you mean?” he set James back into the stroller and took a peek for himself.

“It’s...gone...” She said weakly.

Fox got up to get a better look. “It’s probably just the fog blocking our view.”

“Yeah, but...”she wasn’t totally convinced. “That thunder just now...there isn’t a cloud in the sky. I’ve got a really bad feeling.”

Fox plopped down next to Iris and wrapped his arms around her. “If anyone should be feeling bad, it’s them for wasting their time in that stupid haunted house.”

She giggled and nuzzled herself under Fox’s chin. “Well, I hope they have fun in that spooky old house.”

What she didn’t know was that ‘they’ were going to have fun...it just wouldn’t be the ‘they’ she had hoped for.


	2. The Foyer

“What the HELL was that thing!?” Yoshi panted. He pressed his body weight against the door with everyone else.

“I didn’t have the chance to scan it,” Samus said. “But I don’t recall anything like that living in Hyrule. Zelda?”

The princess caught her breath before saying, “No, that’s definitely not a native of Hyrule. It doesn’t belong here. Link, have you seen it before?”

The silent Hero of Time shook his head. Even his numerous adventures through Hyrule never had him encounter a creature that quite looked like that. Realizing the situation, he removed the sword and shield from his back and gestured for everyone to move away from the door.

Zelda gasped. “You’re going to fight that thing?” Link nodded.

He pulled at the door to no avail.

Yoshi let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, I get it now. That was just an illusion to get us in here. That thing was just smoke and mirrors.”

“Then how do you explain the door?” Claude asked, giving it a tug himself. “It’s not movin’ an inch!”

“They don’t want anyone leaving the attraction so soon, right? Yeah, that’s it,” Yoshi muttered to himself.

“Well there’s always another way out,” Claude said as they stepped deeper into the foyer, finding Marth already there.

“This seems like quite an authentic home,” the prince commented, holding a picture frame. “If you had not told me of these elaborate haunted house attractions, I would be under the impression that we were intruding in someone’s home. This appears to be a picture of the family that would live here.”

In the picture was a father in a brown suit next to his wife in an extravagant red gown with white pearls lining her neck. Ahead of them were their children, an apprehensive young boy and a girl with a mischievous smirk.

Claude glanced over the picture. “A lot of these fake haunted houses have ‘stories’ behind them.”

“You think this might be a clue as to what we can expect?” Kirby asked. His voice shook; it was clear that he was still a little rattled by the encounter outside.

“I really don’t have a good feeling about this,” Captain Falcon squeaked, his eyes darting around the room. “If this really is an attraction and not the real thing, which way are we supposed to go? And where are all the other people?”

The house was deserted. A chandelier cast a flickering orange light along the large room. Red couches and chairs trimmed with gold lined the walls, as did old portraits of Lake Hylia and Death Mountain. The room to the left led to a darkened dining room while the room to the right was a dimly lit living room. A staircase led to the second floor with two hallways on opposite sides.

Samus sighed. “Attraction or not, I’m starting to think that this is a waste of our time. Maybe we should split up and look for another exit. I’ll cover the-”

“Wait a minute! Hold up, stop, pump the brakes!” Claude shouted.

“What’s making you flip out?”

“Every time groups split up in a place like this, things go from bad to worse.”

Link let out a dismissive grunt while Samus replied with, “You’ve been watching too many horror movies. Anyways, Zelda, Link, Marth, Young Link, and Falcon...I want you all to look around upstairs and see if you can find anybody. The people that may live here or others who got lost in here like we did...just anyone you can find. I’ll check out the ground floor with Kirby, Yoshi and Claude. We’ll look for another exit.”

“But Samus, I wanted to be with yooouuu...” Captain Falcon whined, leaning his head on her massive shoulder.

“But there has to be someone as level-headed as I am leading the other group.” Samus mentally sighed when Falcon’s face beamed at the thought of him being ‘level-headed.’ Crisis averted. Or so she thought.

Link and Zelda’s jaws dropped while Marth tried his best not to let his stoic expression crack. Samus waved her free arm in a failed attempt to reassure them. Instead, they shot her scornful looks as Captain Falcon lead them up the carpeted staircase with an extra bounce in his step.

“What are you guys waiting for? Arrrgh!” Captain Falcon literally skipped into the left hallway until a chilly breeze swept past him, causing the paintings on the walls to tremble.

“Who’s there? If you’re a ghost, I’m not afraid of you!” He declared, his voice cracking in contrast. The wind picked up in speed, knocking one of the portraits to the floor. “I shoot scum like you all the time! I’m a Space Pirate, arrrgh!”

The lamps on the wall flickered in response.

“I said I’m not afraid of you! SHOW ME YA MOVES!”

A childlike giggle echoed through the hallway and a force collided with Captain Falcon so hard that he vaulted through the air and soared over Zelda, Link and Marth just as they ducked under his flailing body. He landed in a crumpled heap at the staircase where he continued, flopping and rolling down each and every step, finally sprawling out flat on his back, his only sight the chandelier on the ceiling until Samus’ metallic form stepped over him.

“What happened?” She asked, halfway between amusement and annoyance.

“He showed me his moves,” Falcon whispered hurtfully.

“This is going to be a long night,” Link muttered, ignoring shocked expressions.


	3. Separate Ways...with Dubious Consequences!

“This one’s not budging either,” Yoshi hissed in frustration. He pulled on the window as hard as he could, losing his grip and falling back. He folded his arms and scowled at the window when he saw what little progress he made on it.

He, Samus, Claude and Kirby had spent the last five minutes exploring the rather large dining room. It was a hunch on his part to try the windows - a hunch that didn’t pay off.

“They’ve gotta be nailed or glued shut,” Claude thought aloud, peering through the glass to find nothing but fog obscuring dark objects he could only hope were trees. “But that doesn’t really make any sense.”

“I’m sick of this!” Yoshi declared, hoisting a chair from the table that stretched the length of the room. A blue cord-like beam yanked the chair away before he could throw it.

“Are you out of your mind?” Samus reprimand Yoshi quickly. If she hadn’t been holding the chair with her free hand, she would have given him a good whack across the face. “You can’t decide to just destroy people’s homes!”

“Then maybe the doors and windows should open! If we can’t find a way out, I’ll make one myself!”

Claude let out a cynical laugh. “We’ve only been in here for fifteen minutes and you already went and snapped on us.”

Yoshi pointed at him accusingly. “I didn’t snap! It’s just...this place is giving me the creeps! We should have never come here!”

Samus let out a frustrated sigh. “My scan visor is on the fritz.”

“You picked a fine time to malfunction!”

“You’ve got a lot of sass considering that your only contribution so far has been whining and attempting to throw furniture through the windows.”

Claude ignored Yoshi and Samus’ bickering when he turned his attention to Kirby. It seemed that the little puffball was making no attempts to explore the room or find any exits. In fact, he seemed to be lost in thought.

“Kirby, what’s wrong? You didn’t say anything ever since we came in here.”

Kirby looked up and said in a hushed voice, “I was waiting to see how long you guys were going to ignore what happened to Captain Falcon.”

“What are you talking about?” Yoshi asked, visibly irritated by the subject. “It was typical Falcon shenanigans, even Claude’s learned to ignore him by now.”

“No, it’s not! He said he was thrown down the stairs!” Kirby shouted. The others were taken aback as Kirby rarely ever raised his voice at anyone without reason. He was normally a cheerful and relaxing entity to be around.

Kirby took their ensuing silence to be skepticism. He expected it. “Look, I’m one of the first ones to admit that Captain Falcon isn’t the sharpest tack in the box and he is hard to get along with sometimes but throwing himself down the stairs isn’t something he would do! It’s not ‘typical Falcon’ at all!”

Yoshi threw his hands on his hips and sneered at Kirby. “Well what do you want us to say? A ghost pushed Falcon down the stairs? That’s ridiculous!”

Samus continued to fiddle with her scan visor to no avail. “You believe we’re in a real haunted house? That’s quite a leap, Kirby.”

“Is it really? We’re trapped in a strange house in the middle of nowhere! We were chased in here by some creature. The doors and the windows won’t open, Captain Falcon was hurled down a flight of steps and now your suit is malfunctioning for no apparent reason. Are you trying to say that all of this is a series of coincidences? We must have some terrible luck if that’s true!” 

“I’m not saying these are all coincidences, but there has to be a logical explanation. I still think you’re jumping to absurd conclusions, though.”

“But this is Hyrule!” Kirby pleaded. “Who says that this isn’t just some poe’s idea of a practical joke? We are at the Poe Festival, after all. At least...we were there.”

“It’s not really their style, and there have been no visual clues.” Samus wouldn’t budge from her position, and it was only serving to frustrate Kirby further.

“Why are you guys fighting me on this? You’re being so stubborn...almost like...oh, I get it. Madam Baker told us to avoid the house; if you admit that this place is haunted then it would be like admitting that she was right.”

“Ridiculous!” Yoshi screamed before Samus could get her own protests in. “Now that you’ve said that I’m definitely convinced that this house ISN’T haunted! That old hag is probably behind everything! She trapped us in here to scare us because she knows her fortunes are fake!”

“So it’s a conspiracy?” Kirby asked incredulously, holding back a chuckle.

“It’s more plausible than GHOSTS! Right, Claude?”

“What?” Claude asked, alarmed that he was suddenly thrust into the argument.

“Whose side are you on? Madam Faker is a joke, right?” Yoshi prodded, looking for approval.

“You can’t believe that, can you? It’s possible she knows what she’s talking about! Right?” Kirby tugged at Claude’s pants and gave him one of his brightest smiles.

Claude pushed them both away. “Stop it, I’m not on anybody’s side! I don’t know if she’s a real psychic or not. What I do know is she ain’t trapped in here with us. So here’s the deal, stop bringin’ her up or you’ll just keep fussin’ each other out.”

“I can agree to that,” Samus said. The others nodded. “Anyways, there’s nothing here for us.”

“Let’s check out the kitchen,” Claude suggested. “Might be a back door in there.” 

\-----

Captain Falcon, Link, Zelda, Young Link and Marth crept down one of the upper floor’s hallways. Well, it was mostly Captain Falcon creeping. A few minutes earlier, he implored them to take caution while exploring the house. The only reason they obliged was because he was taking up most of the space in the hallway and no one wanted to knock him or any of the furniture over just to keep moving at a faster pace.

Marth, however, was finding his patience wearing thin.

“Why are you creeping through this hallway? We have not heard nor seen another soul since we parted ways with the others.”

Captain Falcon slowly craned his neck to stare at Marth with a horrified expression. “You said soul,” he whispered solemnly.

Marth furrowed his brows and rested a hand on the Falchion. “What in Altea are you speaking of?”

He closed in on the prince so that their faces were only inches apart. “We’re in a haunted house. You don’t want the ghosts to steal your soul!

“Your sooouuuullll!!!” Falcon screamed, jumping over to Link and shaking him violently by his tunic.

“Falcon, stop it!” Zelda pleaded. “You’re scaring Young Link.” She rubbed the smaller Link’s shoulders to console him.

“Fine,” Captain Falcon replied, straightening his posture. “I should be acting more in-character anyway. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Arrrgh!”

“In-character? You’re not even supposed to be in a costume,” the younger Link said, his words cutting surprisingly deep.

“That’s...beside the point,” Falcon said, waving dismissively. 

“...what point?”

Captain Falcon marched past Young Link without an answer, instead choosing to open the nearest door. He stepped in with little care, and they followed.

It was a mid-sized bedroom. Against the wall was a bed with burgundy sheets decorated in bronze flower petals. On the other side of the room was a dresser with an oval mirror and two chairs under a small desk with a lamp, as well as a closet in the right corner. The lone window was stained with age in contrast to the upkeep of the room.

“Hellooo?” Falcon called. “Anyone here? Arrrgh...”

“I would appreciate it if you would stop making that sound. It is quite ridiculous,” Marth suggested as a politely as he could. He had had his fill of random ‘arrrghs’ for a lifetime.

“But...but I’m a Space Pirate!”

“You are not a Space Pirate!” 

Captain Falcon huffed, turning away from Marth and choosing instead to melt away his frustration with more candy. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be doing that,” he warned when he noticed Zelda making her way over to the dresser.

“It’s simple curiosity,” she told him, opening the drawers in succession, looking for anything that could help them. It was a fruitless search. “There’s nothing in here.”

Link opened the closet to find the same result.

“This latest oddity has certainly piqued my interest,” Marth thought aloud. The prince held a hand to his chin as he pondered the situation. “This room is fully furnished, as is most of the house as we have seen it. Yet...we have not encountered a single person, and there seems to be no personal possessions or clothing of any sort to indicate that people are living in here. But there are few signs of neglect or dilapidation.”

“Except for the lawn,” Zelda added on.

“Yes, the lawn certainly was horrendous,” he agreed.

POP!

They quickly turned to the source of the sound and groaned at the sight of pink bubble gum plastered to Captain Falcon’s face.

“Sorry,” he muttered through the gum. He removed it and tried to smile sheepishly.

Zelda sighed. “Let’s go. There’s nothing in this room that will help us.”

\-----

“Someone turn on a light.”

“It’s not working,” Samus confirmed, flicking the switch a few times.

“Figures,” Claude muttered as they walked through the dark kitchen. That was until Yoshi threw open the refrigerator door, casting a small but much appreciated light into the room.

“We’re supposed to be looking for an exit, not a snack,” Samus said when he began to rummage through the contents of the fridge.

“Are you kidding? If we’re going to be locked in here we might as well enjoy the free food! There’s all kinds of tasty looking stuff in here.” Yoshi pulled out a large ham and presented it to the others. “Do any of you want to try the ham? ...No?”

Before anyone could reply, his tongue entangled the ham in its grasp and he swallowed it in one gulp.

“...where do the bones go?” Claude asked.

“Don’t ask,” Samus replied.

After an obnoxiously loud burp, Yoshi voiced something that had started to concern him. “Where’s Kirby? I haven’t seen the little guy since we came in here.”

“I’m right here,” Kirby responded, stepping into the kitchen.

“Where were you?”

“I got lost looking for a bathroom,” Kirby said. He shrugged, or at least did a motion that was as close to shrugging as he could get without shoulders.

“I swear I saw a door over here,” Claude said, looking at the one empty wall in the kitchen.

“There’s no exit in here,” Kirby interjected, but he was mostly ignored.

“There’s an outline like there used to be a door frame here,” Samus pointed out as she examined the space.

“That’s crazy talk,” Kirby threw in again, determined to be acknowledged. “Where would a door disappear to?” All eyes turned to him in a display of suspicion.

“I didn’t say the door disappeared,” Samus began, studying the strange life form before her. “But what’s with your attitude all of a sudden? You were the main propagator in this group for a haunted house full of unexplainable events and now you’re sounding as skeptical as the rest of us.”

Kirby let out a nervous laugh. “It’s no big deal, really. I was just trying to tell you that when I got lost, I think that I may have stumbled over a real exit.”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner? Show it to us!” Yoshi cried, pushing Kirby out of the kitchen. They followed him back into the depths of the house.

A few minutes later, attention was brought to the refrigerator’s light since the door was left ajar.

“Hello? Anybody in here?” The small form stepped into the light and peered around the kitchen. It was Kirby, lost and alone.

“Where did everybody go? They said they were going to the kitchen...” He noticed the door in the corner and turned the knob. “I can’t believe they left me in this spooky house all by myself.”

He slowly opened it to find a terrace leading into the backyard. It was caked in fog and darkness, and in the distance he heard an incessant growling. It reminded him of the creature they saw on the way to the mansion; he slammed the door shut as quickly as possible after imagining it mauling him to death.

“Okay, maybe they didn’t leave me after all...”

\-----

“What’s in there?” Zelda asked the child peering through the cracked door of another bedroom.

Young Link shut the door. His face was paler than it had been seconds ago. “Redeads. Lots of Redeads.”

The adults traded alarmed glances. The first signs of life they happen to come upon, and it’s Redead; some of the most egregious undead known throughout the Nintendoverse.

“Are you sure?” the princess asked.

“I know those hideous things when I see them. Can’t you hear the moans?”

The familiar, haunting moans of the Redead echoed out of the room and down the halls. Zelda let out an involuntary shudder while Link grimaced. Marth did not seem affected, and if anything, Captain Falcon’s curiosity was struck by this phenomenon.

“Do you think they’re behind all of this?” 

“The Redead?” Zelda inquired with a hint of skepticism. “All they do is shuffle around, they hardly have the power to trap people inside of houses.”

“I think we should question them,” Falcon said, reaching for the door.

“I wouldn’t do that unless you want them to hump your face,” Young Link cautioned the older but simpler man. Captain Falcon did not heed his warning and opened the door anyway.

Unfortunately, a Redead had made its way closer to the doorway and flipped out upon sight. Its shrill, paralyzing cry mixed with Captain Falcon’s own girlish screams as he dove to the ground. The Redead jumped out of the room wildly, its rotten body flailing until it managed to grab someone.

It latched onto Marth, squeezing and groping the prince in ways I’m not entirely comfortable describing here. Why Redead chose this particular style of offense was a mystery older than Hyrule itself.

The Redead collapsed to the floor with the Falchion driven through its chest. It disintegrated in a mass of green flames, leaving the sword to tumble on the scorch marks left in the red carpet. Young Link had already taken the opportunity to close the door before anymore Redead could take advantage of the commotion and sexually harass the rest of them.

In an attempt to comfort himself, Captain Falcon grabbed a handful of candy from his bag and shoved it in his mouth with the wrappers still intact.

“This man...this man! This man!” Marth snapped. He snatched the candy bag from Captain Falcon and swiftly conked him over the head with it. He then shoved it back into Falcon’s arms as if nothing had happened.

“I apologize for my actions but I could take no more of this behavior without reprimanding the culprit!!”

“Jeez Marth...don’t burst a blood vessel,” Young Link dryly told the prince.

“You have insulted our intelligence with stories of soul-eating, you have assaulted my ears with nonsensical pirate mutterings and chewing gum, and my cape is still covered in bits of candy that have flown out of your flapping gums on countless occasions since the night began! And to continue outperforming yourself, you let loose a creature that I am entirely sure had full intentions of molesting me! You have no respect for those around you and I have the right of mind to get as far away from you as possible!”

On cue, the opening of a lock sounded and the floor fell out beneath Marth, dropping him into unknown depths of the house. The trap door closed just as quickly as it appeared.

“Oh my god, the house ate Marth!!!” Captain Falcon screamed, candy and wrappers shooting out of his mouth.

Link investigated, finding no signs of a hidden compartment. The floor was solid.

“I thought ghosts were going to eat his soul, but the house ate his whole body! This place is evil!”

“Get a hold of yourself!” Zelda shrieked, slapping Captain Falcon across the face. He came back to what few senses he had to begin with and fell silent.

“We need to find Marth, but I think the most important thing right now is to regroup with the others and let them know what happened. All right?”

The others nodded in agreement, seeing no reason to challenge her authority.

“Okay then,” Zelda spoke in a much softer tone. “Does anyone know what direction we came from?”


	4. The House's Tragic Truth

Marth landed on a springy surface. He assumed it to be a mattress as the room was so dark that his sight was not any help in this case. The smell and generally claustrophobic feel lead him to believe that he had fallen into a basement or cellar beneath the house.

He stood up and inwardly cursed to himself when he reached for an empty sheath at his side; he had left the Falchion upstairs where he had killed the perverted Redead. He could really use it now, because he was certain something else was in the room with him.

“Will you submit to me?” A deep voice asked only inches away from Marth. Even with his failing eyesight, he had the inkling that the voice was disembodied.

“I submit to no one,” the prince replied, adding a layer of snootiness to his words for good measure. If there had been light, one could see that he had literally turned his nose up at the question.

The voice had a thoroughly good laugh. “You would do well to submit to me, as you do not have a real matter of choice here. It will end a lot better for you and your friends if you do as I say.”

“Be silent, cur! I have been harassed by the likes of the Redead and Captain Falcon all throughout the night. Your threats cannot instill fear in me for I have suffered far worse this evening.”

“Then allow me to relieve you of said suffering.”

Marth was no fool. He could sense the malevolent irony dripping off of that statement. But with little way to defend himself and no idea what he was up against, he easily fell to the fiend’s attack.

Cold hands effortlessly jabbed through his chest plate and latched onto his insides, paralyzing the prince. What he assumed were the fiend’s hands he slowly came to understand was the entity itself, invading his body as its presence expanded. With every passing moment, his senses dulled as the being threatened to overcome him...

\-----

“I’m sure it’s this way,” Kirby said in assurance. He led the others through a series of hallways. They were certain that Kirby didn’t know where he was going, though he did navigate the house with more familiarity than any of them.

He opened the door to their immediate left and leapt up to flick on the light switch.

“Guess this isn’t the way out after all,” Kirby admitted a little carelessly and showing little regret.

It was the bedroom decorated for a young girl. A frilly comforter adorned the bed and pink wallpaper lined the walls.

“You make it sound like getting out of here isn’t that important,” mentioned Samus with a bit of firmness in her words. She did not like the idea of Kirby leading them around aimlessly.

“Well, it’s no big deal. We’ll just look for another exit,” Kirby replied with continued nonchalance. “But look at this!” he exclaimed with newfound excitement, grabbing a small white book from off of the bed and presenting it to them.

Claude took the book since he imagined Samus trying to shift through the pages with her arm cannon while holding the book in her one free hand. That combination would have likely ensued in the destruction of the book and grief for everyone else in the room once the bounty huntress became enraged by the futile attempt.

“This is some little girl’s diary. Julia Worthington,” he read aloud. Before he could read anymore, Yoshi snatched it out of his hands and began flipping through the pages himself.

“What is this? It’s just some kid’s dreck!” he cried, shaking the book by its back as if some hidden pages or objects would fall out. “Why did you even show this to us?”

“Wait!” Samus called before Yoshi could toss the book. “Check the last few entries.”

“Why?”

“If it belongs to the people that live, or lived, in this house, then it may give us some clues on what exactly is going on here.”

Yoshi let out an annoyed ‘hrmm’ to show that he was not pleased with the idea, but obliged anyway. “Daddy and Alana are fighting agaaaiiin,” he read to them in the exaggerated voice of a bratty little girl. “It’s getting worse everyday! Dale says they might get a divorce and we might lose the house...

“Does that help?” Yoshi asked in a conceited manner. Samus grabbed the book and pushed him aside.

“Actually it does, wiseass. I feel a little bit better knowing that this was a real house that actual people lived in at one point instead of a manufactured trap.” The bounty huntress tossed the book back to Claude. “Hold on to that. And this time, I’ll look for the exit.”

Kirby knew that last part was directed at him but didn’t put up a fuss. “Hey, no big deal,” he said, following Samus out of the room.

\-----

Kirby hid behind a potted plant at the end of the hallway. He could not muster up the courage to investigate the sounds coming from behind the door in the center of the hall. He hoped that the source would reveal itself in time, or perhaps even go away entirely.

He whimpered when he heard a male’s voice. Beforehand he would have loved to come across company in the house, but now that he was alone, he wasn’t taking any chances.

The doorknob turned and the door creaked as it opened at an agonizingly slow pace. Kirby sighed in relief when Marth stepped out.

“Marth! What are you doing down here? I thought you were upstairs with the others!”

“I...I fell through a trap door,” the prince stammered uncomfortably in the presence of the puffball.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad you did! I got separated from the others a while ago and I just can’t seem to catch up. This place gives me the creeps.”

Marth knelt down and leaned forward, his face inches away from Kirby’s. “Have you encountered anything strange?”

“Strange? Do you mean supernatural or paranormal?” 

“Yeah, exactly. For example, have you seen...a ghostly woman?”

“No, nothing like that...”

“I see...” Marth took off down the hallway. He had moved so fast that he had nearly turned the corner once Kirby realized that he was being left behind.

“Hey, wait up!” Kirby cried out while chasing after him. “Where are you going?”

“You said you got split up from the others, right? I’ll just have to find them.”

“But you don’t even know where you’re going!”

“I have a good idea.”

Kirby sighed. It wasn’t like Marth to charge forward like this, but the only alternative would be to get left behind again, so he followed the prince.

\-----

“Great, we went in a circle!” Yoshi whined upon stepping into the first room of the manor once again. There was a new eeriness behind it that he couldn’t explain. The room was exactly the same as they had left it. The chandelier kept a dim glow, the furniture was unmoved, and there were still traces of the imprint left on the carpet where Captain Falcon had landed after being tossed down the staircase.

“At least we know where we are now...sorta,” Claude offered as weak consolation. “And I bet the doors are still locked.”

“I hope the others are having better luck than we are,” Samus said, fiddling through her visor modes. None of them were working. Their situation had not improved. “So far we’ve come across absolutely nothing that can help us get out of here.”

“Perhaps you’re here for a reason?” Kirby suggested. His mysterious words garnered the attention of his three friends.

Yoshi snorted. “If we’re here for any reason, it’s because of Madam Faker!”

Claude let out an exasperated sigh. “I thought I told you not to bring her up! You can’t go one whole chapter without talkin’ her up, can you?”

“I can’t help it! That fraud makes my blood boil! We’re trapped in here because of her! And to think that Kirby keeps defending that hag!”

“...I’m sorry,” Kirby apologized.

Kirby’s words only served to fuel Yoshi’s anger. “You’re sorry? YOU’RE SORRY!? After all of this time, you’re just realizing the mess we’re in? She probably orchestrated this whole thing! I’ll tell you what though; I’m not going to be her puppet. There’s no hope for you, but I’m getting out of here!”

Claude and Samus traded glances.

“Yoshi, settle down,” the bounty huntress advised in a low, calming voice. “The stress is getting to you.”

“How can you tell me to settle down when you know she’s a fraud too?”

“You’re right, she is a phony. But I don’t think she’s behind this.”

“Of course she is! And I bet Kirby is helping her, aren’t you!?” Yoshi delivered a swift kick, sending Kirby rolling onto his back. “That’s why you disappeared before, isn’t it? You were probably talking it over with her!”

Claude pulled the enraged dino away from his victim. “Yoshi, stop it! You sound crazy, just leave Kirby alone...”

Yoshi stepped back, horrified. “I can’t believe it! How can none of you be on my side?”

“What ‘side?’ We’re all stuck in this house!” Claude snapped back. “You really let this Baker heifer get under your skin. Comin’ up with crazy theories about her and Kirby ain’t helpin’ us get out of here!

“I don’t care anymore! You guys can stay here with him, but I’m getting out of here!”

Yoshi ran through the foyer and pulled on the golden handles of the front doors. As expected, they still wouldn’t budge. He wasn’t known for his arm strength, so he leapt back and lashed out his tongue. It firmly wrapped around the handles and, just as Yoshi began to pull with all of his might, an electrical jolt coursed from the door, using his tongue as a conductor to wrack his body with volts upon volts of electricity. It only lasted a few seconds, but was powerful enough to leave a small explosion as Yoshi lit up like a light bulb and was jostled through the air and into a couch.

“YOSHI!”

Samus and Claude were immediately upon the ruins of the couch while Kirby kept his distance. The bounty huntress grabbed Yoshi and laid him flat upon the floor. She released a massive sigh of relief when he began coughing.

“Are you okay? How do you feel?”

“I feel like anyone would after being electrocuted,” Yoshi muttered dryly. “Why does stuff like this always happen to me?”

“Some people don’t survive that,” Claude said in a crude attempt to make him feel better. Yoshi would have shot him a dirty look if he felt up to it.

Samus aimed her cannon for the doors. She launched a missile on a straight trajectory, effortlessly sending it plowing into the entrance with an explosion. When the smoke cleared, the doors were fully intact. In fact, there was no sign of damage. And she was not surprised in the least by this phenomenon.

Claude helped Yoshi sit up while the dino traded forlorn glances with him and Samus. “We’re never gonna get out of here, are we?” he moaned.

“I think it’s become apparent more than ever that we have to escape. It was all fun and games at first, but now that we’re being physically assaulted in our attempts to leave, I can’t a-”

“There you guys are!” Kirby cried happily bouncing into the room beside Marth. “I knew I heard an explosion! What’s the big idea leaving me behind like...that...?”

Kirby was staring at himself. They both tilted their heads in a childlike curiosity, studying one another while trying to solve the mystery.

Claude stood up quickly, letting Yoshi’s head hit the floor with a notable thud. “Things got real freaky, real quick.” He was tempted to grab his phase gun, but Samus beat him to the punch.

“Alright, obviously one of you here is the fake. My patience is starting to wear thin so you better identify yourselves or I may have to blast you both.” Her aim darted between them.

“I’m the real Kirby!”

“No, I am!”

“He’s lying!”

“I don’t even know who HE is!”

“Enough!” Samus demanded. Both Kirbys squeaked in fear.

“Samus, let me try somethin’,” Claude said, stepping forward. “I knew Kirby since the minute I first stepped into the Nintendoverse, literally. And he should know me by now. So here’s the ultimate test.” He was giddy on the inside, but didn’t want to admit it to anyone. Instead, it manifested itself as a smug grin on his face. “What’s my word?”

“Your word? That’s so vague,” the Kirby nearest to him responded with skepticism. This was the Kirby that had been with them since the kitchen, and that definitely roused his suspicion.

“You don’t know it?” he asked.

“I didn’t say that!”

“But you have been acting strangely ever since we met back up in the kitchen,” Samus added. “You were the main cheerleader for the paranormal theory and Madam Baker, but as soon as we started to encounter strange phenomenon, you were the first to dismiss it.”

“It didn’t seem appropriate at the time. I mean, the subject really irritated Yoshi.”

“And what about you?” Claude asked the Kirby that had arrived with Marth. The prince himself had made some distance from Kirby and chose to quietly observe the situation as it unfolded.

“Do I have to say that silly word?”

“No, but you’ll probably get vaporized if you don’t.”

Kirby frowned. “Okay, okay...shadoink! Is that good enough?” 

Arm cannon and phase gun were intently trained on the fake Kirby. He made no attempts to escape, though his eyes watched the weapons wearily.

“Okay, you’ve got five seconds to preserve your life by telling us who you are and why you’re here,” Samus told him calmly and slowly, but the harsh tone was undeniable.

The fake Kirby traded glances with everyone in the room before his eyes locked with Marth’s. His demeanor changed, displaying a bit of distress for just a second before he relaxed again.

With another one of his sort-of-shrugs, he said, “Oops,” before turning into a pink wisp of smoke and disappearing. The room fell silent for a few seconds.

“No,” Samus told Kirby suddenly, knowing beforehand that he was going to go into an ‘I told you so’ rant. “So the place is haunted. That just makes things worse.”

“Well at least you’re acknowledging it now,” the puffball grumbled to himself.

“Marth, how did you get down here anyway?” Claude asked the prince.

“A trapdoor,” the prince replied, “I was separated from everyone else and my sword in the process. When I came out of the cellar I fell in, I ran into Kirby. The real one, apparently.”

“It’s nice to know that we weren’t the only ones dancing like puppets after we split up,” Samus murmured. “Well, this is clearly a game to whoever’s been putting us through this. I think we should regroup, because we’re not getting out of here without confronting the source of our frustrations.”

“Kill a ghost? Sounds...dumb,” Claude thought aloud before Yoshi punched him in the side. “What was that for?”

“For dropping my head onto the floor! You’re a terrible fanboy!”

“I guess that means you got some sense zapped back into you?”

“That’s not funny.”

“Maybe not. But if you’d flipped out any longer I woulda knocked some sense into you myself by slapping the hell out of you.”

Yoshi looked no less than appalled. “Like I said: you’re a terrible fanboy!”

“Enough of that,” Marth intervened, a pressing question on his mind. “I need to know if any of you have seen a ghostly woman at all?”

There was a short silence as Yoshi traded a bewildered stare with Samus and Claude. “No...why? Have you seen her?”

“You think she’s behind all of this?” Kirby asked, tugging on the prince’s cape. He retracted his flap-for-a-hand in disgust when an old piece of Captain Falcon’s candy was stuck to it.

“I...I’m not sure, but if you do see a ghostly woman, keep your distance. And tell me right away.”

“Marth!?” Zelda gasped from the upper floor, having entered through the right hallway. Captain Falcon and the Links were with her. “Thank the Goddesses you’re okay!” She held her dress as she dashed down the staircase and gave Marth a long hug.

Link wasn’t the only one a bit displeased by that.

“Hey, what about the rest of us?” Yoshi asked.

“Oh...Yoshi. You’re still alive. Good.”

Captain Falcon went in for a hug of his own. “I missed you, Samus!” he happily confessed, squeezing her armor tightly. “When we were apart, all I could think about was you! And cars. But mostly you!”

Young Link was determined to end the mushiness. “So did you guys find a way out or not?”

“Nope, but besides Marth in a cellar, we found this!” Claude held the little white diary up and waved it around. “Julia Worthington’s diary. I guess people did live here before.”

“Hm? Julia Worthington?” Zelda stopped and looked at the book. From the way she was staring, there was clearly more to it than anyone realized. “May I take a look?” the princess requested, and Claude obliged.

She flipped through a few of the pages and her eyes widened in a combination of horror and awe. “Oh....oh! Why didn’t I realize this sooner? The Worthington manor? Are we actually in the Worthington manor!?”

“Wanna fill the rest of us in?” Yoshi asked bitterly, his arms folded. He was clearly holding on to her earlier greeting with resentment.

“Well, the story is that the Worthingtons are a long line of nobles that were even in good with the royal family. That all came to a tragic end when the butler returned to the manor one morning and found the entire family murdered. It was concluded that the father had a psychotic episode and killed his family before killing himself. That was around fifty years ago. The stigma behind the manor’s tragic history ensured that no one else moved in and it’s supposed to have been that way ever since.”

“Where did you hear such idiotic nonsense?” Marth questioned suddenly, thoroughly disgusted by the story.

“I- well I...everyone in Hyrule knows it. It’s the legend,” the princess replied, a little shaken. Marth had never spoken to her in such a way before. His presence was almost threatening.

“That was pretty harsh, Marth! What’s gotten into you?” Kirby scolded.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way.”

“Well maybe you’re just feeling a little angry because you’re missing this!” Captain Falcon pulled the Falchion from his candy bag and shook off some of the candy that was stuck to the blade, hitting several people with tasty treats in the process.

“Thank you,” Marth said. Upon grabbing the hilt, a shock was released and the Falchion dropped to the floor.

Marth massaged his burning hand and tried again. This time the sword gave off a more forceful shockwave that made the prince step back.

“I see that the house must have cursed my blade...” he uttered a bit nervously.

“That’s bull!” Claude proclaimed, gripping the phase gun. “I played enough Fire Emblem to know that.”

“What are you implying?”

“The Falchion is a sacred blade,” Zelda elaborated. “It strikes down evil. And only Marth can wield it properly. If the sword is rejecting you, then...”

“Alright, what are you? Another clone?” Samus demanded, holding her arm cannon steady. “I’m getting sick of these games!”

Marth let out a nervous laugh. “Guys, you can’t believe that, can you? I’m Marth. Just look at me!”

“You’re not Marth! You don’t act like him at all!” Zelda pointed at him accusingly. “He would have never spoken to me like that! Marth is kind and respectful. You’re just a poor imitation!”

Marth’s shoulders sagged. He closed his eyes and let out a chilling laugh, his personality warping right before their eyes. “Okay, fine. The jig is up. At least I don’t have to pretend to like any of you anymore.”

He waved his hand, summoning a strong blast of wind that entered the room and knocked everyone off their feet.

“You’re right, I’m not Marth,” he continued, looking down upon them. “Well, that’s not entirely true. I’m taking his body for a ride, so shoot me and you hurt him.” He let out a sigh and shook his head. “It’s a shame none of you could help me instead of having to resort to this. You’re not my target. So stay out of my way...or else.”

He clapped his hands twice and a horde of Redead shambled in from the upper floor. He climbed the staircase and walked past them without eliciting the slightest response. They had obeyed his command and were inching down the stairs, their familiar haunting moans forewarning the inappropriate things they wanted to do to their would-be victims.

Captain Falcon did what he was expected to do in this situation: he screamed at the top of his lungs. 

“What are we going to do?” Zelda asked, looking around desperately.

Claude was similarly at a loss. “We better do somethin’ soon or it’s goin’ to be a Redead orgy in here!”


	5. House of LIES!

Redead collapsed and rolled down the steps like the perverted ragdolls that they are. A hail of gunfire, arrows and spells lit up the staircase but only managed to temporarily deter the rotten monstrosities – there were too many to count filing down those stairs and the few that had been taken down were now rising up from the carpet, their limbs and spines twisting in inhuman arcs before returning to a painfully slow shamble across the room, complete with creepy moans.

“This isn’t working!” Zelda cried over the chaos. She closed her fist, igniting a fireball that sent one redead flying into the crowd, knocking them down like bowling pins.

“Everyone! Into the dining room!” Samus commanded. She did not have to say it twice.

Once everyone had entered, Link and Claude proceeded to barricade the double doors with chairs. Had the table not stretched the length of the room, they would have used that too.

“Stand back,” the bounty huntress warned, her arm cannon covered in a thin frost. She aimed her weapon for the doors and unleashed the power of a fully charged Ice Beam Combo – the Ice Spreader. The cold blast connected and ensnared the door, barricade and all, in a thick layer of ice.

She turned her attention to the second entrance to the dining room. “Link, I want you to keep watch at that door. I don’t think the redead are smart enough to look for another way in, but I don’t want us getting stuck in here just in the case that they do.”

“This is the worst Halloween ever!” Claude complained over the ruckus of the redead plowing headfirst into the barricade. “I don’t know how I let you people talk me into this.”

“You were looking forward to this just as much as the rest of us!” Yoshi retorted. “And Hyrule doesn’t even HAVE Halloween! So technically, you’re wrong!”

Captain Falcon found a corner and sat in a fetal position, wailing every time the redead smacked against the frosted door. He had no intention of getting stuck in here without any outside help, so he activated the comlink on the collar of his uniform. He didn’t care that he had no idea who he was contacting and or that it hadn’t worked before.

“Hello?” came the faint voice of Fox McCloud over static.

“Oh my god, Fox! Help me!”

Outside of the manor, Fox was visibly disgusted by Falcon’s voice emitting from his own comlink. James became distraught upon the sight of his father’s face contorting into a scowl, and Iris consoled the baby.

“What is it now?” Fox asked, instantly regretting it.

“There were ghosts and redeads a-a-and someone’s inside of Marth AND OH MY GOD THEY’RE BREAKING IN! Wait, no they’re not! But they’re trying to break in AND WE CAN’T GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND THEY’RE COMING TO GET MEEEEEEE AND-”

Fox drew a palm to his face. Falcon was hysterical and he didn’t have the patience to decipher what any of that meant.

“You’re a Space Pirate. Deal with it.”

“But I-”

The connection quickly cut out, leaving Fox with a sigh of relief.

“What was that all about?” His mate asked.

“Falcon must be bored because he’s screwing around on the comlinks. Either that or the people in scaaary costumes got to him.”

Iris let out a soft giggle as James calmed down in her arms. “Maybe you should go in there and save him?”

“Let Samus do it,” Fox replied bluntly.

“You’re right. She’s used to putting up with him.” Iris could not help but glance back at the manor. It was still enshrouded in a dense fog. She didn’t like that at all, but the alternative meant actually going up there to investigate. Her instincts told her better than that.

Back inside of the dining room, Captain Falcon whimpered in his corner. The power in the room died at the same time his connection did, and they were cast in darkness, save for the dim lights creeping through the windows. The moonlight fought desperately to reach through the fog, and it was not winning.

Zelda cast a spell that generated an orb of light in her palm. She aimed it like a flashlight, shining it on each person in the room. All were accounted for.

The spell soon became unnecessary when a greater light emerged atop of the dining room table. The light itself seemed to be coming down from the ceiling and not the chandelier, and was accompanied by a thin mist. From within, a woman rose into view, as if standing from a kneeling position.

Her dress was long and white and the shoulders were round puffs. It reminded them much of Peach’s own dress, but silkier.

No one said a word as the woman glided across the table and towards the entrance Link had been guarding. He moved out of the way; he was mesmerized by her appearance, but wasn’t taking the risk of letting her fly through him.

She turned around to face them. Her face bore an eternal sadness as she said, “I’m sorry for what my husband has done to your friend.”

“You’re the ghostly woman he was looking for, aren’t you?” Kirby asked her. Though he was the first to speak, the fact that he concealed himself halfway behind the younger Link said otherwise of his bravery. It didn’t help that Young Link himself was tucked firmly behind a chair.

“You’re Alana Worthington?” Zelda pressed for confirmation. The woman nodded.

“My husband, Niles...he has been consumed with rage ever since his death. Even in the afterlife, he seeks to utterly destroy me.”

“I-I don’t get it,” Young Link spoke up, gripping the back of the chair tightly like a shield. His voice cracked with fright. “Why did he p-possess Marth?”

The woman turned her gaze upon the child. She smiled, but the deep sorrow from her eyes only made him shudder. “The ritual to destroy a wandering soul can only be performed by the living. There is a way to still save your friend, but I need your help.”

She held out her transparent arm, beckoning Zelda to come forth. The princess was hesitant; she felt bad for the woman’s situation, but she could not bring herself to completely trust her just yet.

“What is it I can do?” The wary princess inquired.

“Please...come here,” Alana pleaded.

Zelda took a few steps forward. She had no intention of coming within reach of Alana’s grip, but she did watch the spirit’s face intently for any signs of a change in demeanor.

“Don’t do it!” cried two childlike voices in unison.

Captain Falcon screamed when two children emerged from the frozen door, their bodies pale and transparent not unlike Alana’s. It was obvious from a glance that the two were siblings; the brother stood a head taller than his younger sister. They were both wearing painfully formal clothing. The girl wear a skirt and stockings with her hair pulled into pigtails while the boy was wearing the child version of a tuxedo.

Alana’s sadness disappeared, quickly replaced with subtle outrage. “Don’t listen to them. These children are here to DECEIVE you! They have been playing tricks on you all night!”

“We were only having fun!” the young girl retorted. “But she’s the real bad guy here!”

Zelda backed away from Alana. Whether the children were trustworthy or not, she was not going to put herself in jeopardy.

But she had no say in the matter.

Alana struck without warning, diving for the princess. She drove both arms into Zelda’s chest and began to slowly recede into her being as if a vacuum was pulling her in. Zelda was instantly immobilized. Paralysis set in, yet she could feel the cold hands writhing within her. She did not have to see the sinister grin upon Alana’s face to know her intent, as the spirit’s very consciousness began to invade her mind, and even possibly threaten to eject it entirely.

The Master Sword was unsheathed and cut through Alana in one motion. It was no surprise to Link that the sword had no effect, but it was the first move he could think to make. She was not like the Poes.

“You will remove your foul hands from Princess Zelda!”

Marth had appeared from nowhere, reaching for Zelda. He passed through the princess, but he gripped Alana and brought her crashing to the floor with him.

Thwarted, the woman gave the prince a scornful look before bolting through the ceiling. The power returned just as her body slipped through to the next floor. With the lights back on, they could see Marth clearly now. It was the prince just as he had been when they entered the manor, except his body was becoming increasingly transparent from his head, which looked nearly solid, to his feet, which were hardly visible at all.

“Marth...is that really you?”

“Yes, princess. There is no need to be alarmed. I am still here...albeit in a much lighter form.” His humor did nothing to alleviate the mood.

Yoshi was on the verge of pelting the ghost children with eggs. “How can we trust them if they were behind all of this?”

“I can vouch for them,” Marth stated. His footsteps made no sound as he approached the dino. “Go ahead...explain yourselves. They will understand,” he coaxed the children with a softer tone.

The boy spoke up first. “Well, we’re used to people stumbling into our house, so we have a little fun with them and scare them away.”

“But you guys aren’t like the others!” the girl, Julia, intervened. “You weren’t really scared or anything. Except for that guy,” she said, pointing at Captain Falcon.

Realizing that he was still huddled in the corner, Captain Falcon quickly rose to his feet and cleared his throat, unconvincingly. It didn’t help that he was still wearing the shoddy Space Pirate costume.

“You have to understand, our father is innocent!” Dale pleaded with the Smashers. “It’s strange realizing how you’ve died after it’s all said and done, but it was our stepmother. She did it while we were sleeping...our father found out, but it was too late. She killed him too and staged it to look like he had killed himself.”

Zelda covered her mouth, muffling the horrified gasp. “I understand now. Your father...when we first saw him in Marth’s body...it makes sense the way he reacted when I recited the legend. I basically accused an innocent man of murdering his own family!”

Marth nodded solemnly. “Yes, their spirits have been trapped in this house for nearly fifty years. Their father has been consumed with rage, wanting nothing more than to destroy the very existence of his wife. He often does not realize that his children also walk these halls.”

“We’re tired. All we want is to move on...with daddy.” Julia clasped her hands against her dress and gave forlorn look to everyone in the room. Her eyes were welling up, if it were even possible for a ghost to cry.

Young Link looked away from the girl, and decided to let his morbid curiosity get the best of him. “Wait, so who killed Alana?”

“Raymour. He was our butler,” Julia replied with a sniffle.

“It’s always the butler,” Samus muttered, then leaned forward, casting her shadow onto the deceased kids. “Okay, look here kids. What happened to your family is tragic, but our top priority here is to get Marth back into his body. We’ll try to help your father but I’m not entirely sure what you’re expecting us to do.”

“Just convince him to come with us,” Dale answered. “We kept you locked in here when we were having fun at first, but now our father is using his power to keep you inside, so you’ll have to stop him if you want to get out. And no one else can get in.”

“So Fox wouldn’t be able to do anything...” Captain Falcon whispered to himself.

“Not to alarm you, my friends,” Marth spoke up again. “But the souls of the living cannot exist outside of their bodies for too long. This transparency you see is not just the effect of being removed from my body, but also the evidence that I may no longer exist before dawn.” Despite this massive reveal, the prince’s mood was actually quite light.

Claude folded his arms and looked down at the children in discontent. “Maybe you shoulda confessed all of this a little sooner?”

“It was Dale’s idea to get you to help us,” Julia added on, as if suddenly shifting the blame to her older brother.

Dale didn’t seem bothered by that. In fact, they all sensed a bit of cockiness in him. “We tried to guide you in order for you to help us. We had to show you what happened here without giving ourselves away.”

Kirby was confused. “What are you talking about? We were wandering around the house aimlessly until recently!”

The siblings traded glances. “Maybe you’ll understand after this,” Julia said. Her appearance changed. Her face, her clothing, her existence, all slowly faded away, leaving only her silhouette, which became malleable and shaped itself into a loose circle. A pink coloration faded into the new silhouette, and Kirby realized that he was looking at a double of himself. 

“You were the fake Kirby?” Yoshi bellowed in outrage. “I bet you electrocuted me too!”

“No, that was me,” Dale admitted with a smirk, a spark fizzling on his fingertips. “You were kicking my sister around so I had to teach you a lesson.”

“Why you little...!”

Claude grabbed Yoshi before he could pounce. “What’re you gonna do to him? He’s a ghost, remember?”

Yoshi calmed down but still had to ask, “Why didn’t you just tell us this from the start?”

“The ghost of a girl walks up to you and asks you to save the soul of her dead father,” Samus answered. “How would you react?”

The dino shrugged. “I don’t know! I’ve never been in a situation like that!”

“Exactly. They didn’t want to scare us off so they slowly guided us to the revelation of their situation.”

Over the course of the conversation, Claude swore that Marth was becoming more transparent than before. He brought the topic back on track when he thought aloud, “I’ve heard of possessions but I didn’t know you could get pushed out of your own body.”

“Do you think you can reclaim your body?” Zelda asked. She reached out for the prince’s hand. It was a fruitless effort when her hand clasped air, but just the notion behind the gesture was enough to bring their eyes to lock, warranting a smile from Marth.

Link snorted but otherwise said nothing. Julia longed for her human body after that display and returned to her original form.

“I believe so,” Marth replied. “If we can subdue Mr. Worthington, the next task will be up to me. He may be more familiar with the privileges and boundaries of a wandering spirit, but I do not give up so easily. This is of course if he doesn’t willingly surrender in the unlikely chance that we are able to persuade him to rejoin with his children.”

Kirby’s face lit up with an idea. “He was looking for Alana, right? If we catch her, we can lure him to us!”

“We don’t know where she is, and how do you ‘catch’ a ghost anyway?” Young Link pondered. He wasn’t really looking for an answer; chasing ghosts was not his idea of a good time.

“We don’t need her. I have a better idea,” Samus announced, and then turned her gaze back upon the Worthington children. “We’ll need access to some of Alana’s clothing...but we haven’t seen much in the way of personal possessions since we got here.”

“Oh, that’s our fault,” Dale said, twiddling his thumbs. “We can make things disappear and reappear. You’re not the first ones to go snooping through our home. Can’t let just anybody walk away with our things, right?”

Samus understood and nodded. “Which explains why some of the rooms were barren and yet that diary was sitting in plain sight.” 

“We can take you to the master bedroom upstairs,” Julia told them with a genuine smile plastered on her face. For the first time, it seemed like her father would be getting the help he really needed.

“There’s still the little redead problem we have out there,” Kirby noted.

“Leave it to me!” Dale proclaimed confidently. Like his sister did before him, he too displayed the ability to abandon his original appearance and turned himself into a clone of Captain Falcon, Space Pirate costume intact. He glanced back to the occupants in the room one last time and leapt through the frozen door, in plain sight of his new audience.

The fake Falcon let out a bloodcurdling scream before breaking into an exaggerated run on the tips of his toes down one of the hallways. New, possibly even excited moans escaped the rotted maws of the redead as they slowly turned and went in pursuit.

“They bought it,” Samus uttered in mild disbelief, watching the scene from her X-Ray Visor. She was still getting some interference with her visor modes, but it was clear enough for her to see the living dead shambling to another part of the manor. 

The red glow of the Plasma Beam was accompanied by a hum as Samus melted the ice off the door. In the meantime, Young Link couldn’t shake his lingering morbid curiosity. There was one thing still on his mind since they first stepped foot on Worthington property.

“What exactly was that thing that chased us in here?”

Julia smiled at the younger Link and begun to gently sway her body left and right, letting the dress mimic her movement.

Young Link felt uncomfortable with her sudden attention. “Uh...hello?”

“Oooohhh...that’s our dog, Petri,” the girl finally replied, still smiling. “Don’t be mad at him. He just wanted to play.”

“Riiight...”

“It’s no big deal. I bet he likes you. I know I do,” Julia whispered, inching ever closer to Young Link. He gulped and backed into a wall, but was saved when the last chunk of ice cracked and fell to the floor under the intensity of the Plasma Beam.

Samus opened the door, satisfied with her work. “Okay Julia, lead the way.”

\-----

Captain Falcon’s shaky hand fiddled through his bag of candy and retrieved a piece of bubble gum. He was never actually that fond of gum, but chewing anything right about now would help to calm his nerves. Ever since the ghosts decided to show themselves, he had been thoroughly freaked out.

“Arrrgh,” he whispered to no one in particular before depositing the pink chewing gum within his maw.

Kirby rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the others. He, both Links, Falcon and Claude had been put on guard duty outside of the bedroom. The actual trip had been the most uneventful thing to happen in the house that night. With the redead off in some other part of the house, the children no longer playing pranks, and the Marth-disguised Niles Worthington most likely engaged in ways to destroy his wife’s soul, there was simply no one left to harass them at the moment. And he found himself surprisingly bored because of it.

“I was expecting a little more commotion than this,” the puffball admitted.

“I know, right?” Claude agreed. “You get mentally prepared for somethin’ and then nothing happens. It’s almost a letdown.”

“You guys are crazy,” Captain Falcon said through chewed gum. “I’ll take all the peace we can get.”

“Well it’s not like it’s over. We’ve still got to confront that Niles guy,” Young Link mentioned with more nonchalance than Falcon cared for.

“Alright, this is gettin’ boooring,” Claude said after a few more minutes of mundanity. “I’m gonna see what they’re doin’ in there.” He entered the master bedroom only to stifle a laugh.

“I don’t understand why I have to be the one to do this!” Yoshi whined as Samus and Zelda pulled a white dress over him. “I don’t look anything like a human female!”

“You’re the only one that can pull this off,” Zelda told him, forcing his arm through one of the dress’s frilly white sleeves. He fought her, but he wasn’t winning.

“What about you two?”

“He’d expect that,” she replied flatly, adjusting the sleeves.

“Then what about Captain Falcon?”

“He’s too tall.”

“Claude?”

“His complexion is darker than Alana’s.”

“But I’m green!”

“We know, and we won’t hold that against you,” Samus tacked on casually.

Yoshi ignored her and continued his pleading. “Link?”

Zelda almost laughed. “You try getting a dress on him.”

“But he’s already wearing one!” Yoshi threw his head back with a haughty laugh. The girls ducked when a boomerang slammed into Yoshi’s face, bounced through the air and returned to its owner.

“Hmph,” Link muttered, leaving the room in content.

“I wish we could do something about this stomach,” Zelda said, poking Yoshi in the gut. He would have complained if he wasn’t still reeling from the boomerang.

“What about this?” Claude asked, holding up a garment with a devious smile.

Yoshi instantly snapped out of his daze. “No! NO! I am NOT wearing a corset!”

“Like we’d subject ourselves to such visual torture,” Samus said, trying very hard to burn the image out of her mind. She gave Claude a sharp look and he tossed the corset back into the trunk of clothes he found it in, holding his arms out in an amused, carefree pose.

Zelda was too busy mulling over her own thoughts to give the prior scene much thought. “What I don’t understand is why Alana tried to steal my body. What will that accomplish?”

“Niles Worthington wants to completely destroy her,” Marth spoke suddenly after stepping through a wall. He startled Yoshi so badly that the dinosaur would have leapt a mile had Samus and Zelda not been holding him down by the dress. “My apologies, Yoshi. As I was saying, I have no recollection of a method for one spirit to ‘kill’ another. There has to be a task that she can only perform with a human body.”

“She’s probably tryin’ to find a way not to get exorcised,” Claude mentioned in indifference, rummaging through the trunk for more embarrassing clothes for Yoshi.

Zelda let go of the dress’s collar. “Yes! The exorcism spell is specifically for dealing with lingering spirits! It would not be very effective against her if she were to take refuge in a living body.”

Samus eyed Zelda from behind the visor. The stunned look on Zelda’s face told her that there was much more to it than that. “So what else is there?”

“The spell is so powerful that it would impact the entire house! Not only would Alana be affected...but so would the kids! And Marth!” She quickly buttoned the top of the dress and backed away from Yoshi. “This is all we can do. We have to make this work, and not just for Marth’s sake!”

“What about his gigantic nose?” Claude asked, still highly entertained by the situation.

“I’ve got a solution for that,” Samus said, retrieving a white lace bonnet from the trunk. Yoshi bore an unending scowl as the bounty huntress fastened it to his head. “Stop that. The sooner you go through with this, the sooner we can get out of here.”

He folded his arms as Samus corralled him out into the hallway. Captain Falcon looked slightly more disturbed by this turn of events, and Young Link keeled over laughing.

“Is this what it was all about?” he could barely utter through hysterical laughter.

Yoshi’s scowl deepened. “Shut it, pipsqueak!”

“I think it’s great that Yoshi would go this far to help Marth and the kids out,” Kirby commended his friend. Yoshi’s attitude didn’t change.

“Don’t patronize me!” he shouted back at the puffball.

“But...I’m not.”

Zelda approached Yoshi and laid her hands upon his shoulders. “We’re counting on you for this. We’ll hide in the bedroom and you’ll call for Niles, but we’ll still be right here. Don’t worry.”

Yoshi looked into the princess’s eyes and realized that the gentleness and concern in her voice was very much genuine. It softened his mood, if only just a bit. “What happens when he shows up?”

“You’ll have to keep him convinced that you’re his wife and try to get him to take you back to wherever he’s hiding out. We’ll follow you.” Zelda let go of Yoshi and addressed everyone in the hallway as she continued, “hopefully we can persuade him to stop what he’s doing. But if that doesn’t happen...well...we’ll just have to put good use to all of that experience saving the world and training for tournaments.”

She didn’t want to think of the outcome of that scenario and could only imagine the rage that consumed Niles Worthington’s soul for fifty years. She truly pitied the man. They all did.

The hallway emptied out as everyone filed into the master bedroom, leaving Yoshi and his white dress as the only living soul there.

“Go ahead,” Zelda urged him, peering through the keyhole. “Call for him.”

Yoshi sighed, feeling even more ridiculous with everyone waiting on him to go through with it. “Niles. Niles, come out wherever you are.”

“He can’t hear you like that,” Young Link said from behind the door. “We can barely even hear you in here!”

Yoshi muttered something nasty under his breath before shouting, “Niles! Niles, come on out!”

“You have to say it like you’re his longing wife,” Zelda suggested with a whisper.

“Aaaaargh!” Yoshi moaned, pulling down on the bonnet in frustration.

“Hey, that’s my line!” Captain Falcon whined, looking around to see if anyone else was as upset about it as he was. Predictably, they weren’t.

“Oh Niles! I missed you...honey.” Yoshi was flustered to say the least.

“Hahaha!”

“Shhhh!”

They waited, but the call went unanswered.

“They were married, so play the part,” Claude told him. “Act like he did something wrong.”

Yoshi grinned. He wanted to rip into this Niles guy ever since he first heard about him, and now was the perfect opportunity. It didn’t matter that he was alone in the halls of a haunted manor, or that he was wearing the dress of a dead woman. “Niles Worthington, YOU GET YOUR STUPID, CHEATING ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW OR WE’RE GETTING A DIVORCE!”

A harsh wind whipped against his back. He turned around, nearly tripping on the dress, but found no source of the phenomenon. When he turned back around, Marth was staring down at him with the burning eyes of a scorned father.

“Um...hi honey.”

“You brazen wench!” Niles hissed with more vitriol than Marth ever displayed. “You dare show yourself before me after what you did to my family?”

“I’m sorry,” Yoshi said, fidgeting. He had to make something up on the spot. “I wanted to make it up to you.”

The stolen face of Marth contorted from disgust to slight confusion. “What kind of trick is this? Why do you look like that?”

“I...needed a body! So I took this one.”

“Terrible choice.”

Yoshi kept his display of displeasure as a low grumble, which turned into a gasp when Niles suddenly closed the distance between them and lifted him by the neck.

“So, you claim to be my wife,” he stated with subtle fury, ripping the bonnet off of Yoshi. “Whether it’s true or not, it was a stupid stunt for you to pull. We’ll find out the truth soon enough.”

Niles bore an ill intent smile as he lifted off of the ground by a good two feet. Yoshi’s cries of help were drowned out when they rocketed through the air and down the hallway.


	6. Redemption for a Father

The door swung open and everyone poured out into a clumsy heap. Zelda was the first to get back onto her feet.

“We can’t let him get away! There’s no telling what he’ll do to Yoshi!” The princess led the charge after Niles, and prepared to summon Din’s Fire out of habit. She stopped when she realized that she did not want to harm Marth’s body, and even if she had decided to go through with it, the explosive properties of the spell would put Yoshi in danger too.

Niles cast a glance back at his pursuers beyond his flapping cape and showed no surprise. He adjusted his altitude a bit and soared over a mass of redead that infested the hallway.

“I’ll handle this!” Samus declared. She picked up the speed and her armor took on a neon blue glow; the Speed Booster had been activated. A trail of afterimages followed her as she plowed through the horde. Redead exploded into fiery ash upon touch, and Zelda cleared whatever was left over when she leapt forward, engulfed in the green twister of Farore’s Wind.

Niles glanced back once more, realizing that he had lost them. He touched down on the ground once again, dragging Yoshi behind him as he opened the door to a bedroom and tossed him inside.

Yoshi was still stunned from the sudden flight, but as he recovered, he realized that the room was covered from the floor to the ceiling in red glyphs. He had little experience with magic, so he didn’t recognize any of them.

“I may not be able to use this man’s sword, but,” Niles began, striding across the room to a fireplace, “there are alternatives here.” He brandished an ashen fire poker and Yoshi’s eyes widened in horror.

“Tell me, are you really my wife, or was this just a misguided attempt to lure me out?” He took slow, agonizing steps forward while sweeping the poker from side to side. Yoshi tried to crawl away, but the task was nearly impossible since he was still wearing Alana’s dress.

“Please, Niles! We can repair our marriage!”

“Shut your damn mouth!” Niles snapped. “If there’s one thing I hate more than Alana, it’s people that mock my situation!”

“That’s not what I was doing!” Yoshi pleaded.

“It’s a little late for that!” He raised the fire poker, but an orange blast sent it spinning out of his hand.

He only glared at Samus for a moment before he approached her at inhuman speeds and, with incredible strength, threw her to the ground. 

“PIRATE...PAWWWNCH!” Captain Falcon slid forward, his fist engulfed in flames. Niles ducked low to the ground and grabbed Falcon’s free arm, tossing him over his shoulder. 

With no time to react, Link rammed him from behind with the Hylian Shield and followed it up by hurling his boomerang. Niles swatted it aside, but it was enough of a distraction for Samus to unleash the Ice Beam on his legs. Ice quickly encapsulated his boots, freezing his feet to the floor.

More people poured into the room, and he reacted by creating a gust of wind in hopes of pushing them back out. Zelda countered by summoning an invisible, magical wall that canceled out the wind burst.

“It’s over, Niles,” the princess proclaimed, her gloved hand still fizzling with magical power.

“Give Marth back his body!” Kirby demanded with an angry leap.

“So...annoying,” Niles muttered through gritted teeth. “I gave you the chance to live earlier. Clearly that was a mistake on my part!”

“You should be thanking us! We’re only here to help,” said Young Link, and his older counterpart nodded.

“Besides, it’s not like we came here to get caught up in this mess,” Claude noted. “But two important people asked us to help you.”

The two Worthington children entered through the wall, hand in hand, and cast solemn looks upon their father.

“My children are DEAD!” screamed Niles, tugging at his frozen restraints.

“So are you!” Kirby retorted, suddenly pointing at the man. “You have been for the past fifty years!”

“But they weren’t subjected to this cursed existence. My children were innocent, they passed on after their deaths...only myself and that evil wench reside here!”

“You’re wrong,” Marth stated, entering the room and standing behind the Worthington children for support. “Your children have stayed here all of these years in an attempt to save your soul.”

Niles narrowed his eyes, but Marth did not falter upon seeing the glare from his own face. “You!” he hissed at the prince. “This is an illusion! You did this as revenge for me taking over your body!”

“That’s not true!” Julia protested. “We’re right here! We’re real! Why won’t you pay attention to us, daddy?”

“Don’t you dare call me that! You don’t have the right!”

Tears burned Julia’s eyes and Dale tried to console her. Marth stepped forward, closed his eyes and held a hand to where his heart would have been. Ever since he had been ejected from his own body, he felt a perplexing inner peace. While he was never one to be overwhelmed with inner turmoil, this was a more absolute peace than he had known. He wanted to pass it on to Niles, and so he spoke as he felt.

“I must ask you a question, Niles,” Marth said. When the man didn’t protest, he took it as consent. “You are in my body. Do you not have access to my memories?”

“...Yes, I do.”

“Then you know that I have also experienced loss. Those memories do not lie.”

“And that is why it’s infuriating that you don’t see my side! You got vengeance for your father! Why won’t you allow me to have mine!?”

“My quest was righteous,” Marth corrected him sternly. “In no way did I harm innocents! If you activate this spell, not only will you destroy your wife, but your children and myself as well! If you go through with this, you will be submitting to the rage within and hurting others in the crossfire. If there is truly a good man beneath that wrath, the consequences could destroy you!

“I admit that I was angry beyond words when my father was murdered, but I did not allow my emotions to consume me, and I refused to allow my personal tragedy hurt those that did not deserve it!”

“You’re so high on your own concept of justice,” Niles spat, his fury overtaking the usually soft features of the prince’s face. “Where is the justice here!? What do you intend to do about my family’s murder!? Who is going to give Alana what she deserves? Will it be you? I don’t think so!”

“She was similarly betrayed and murdered,” Samus answered. “I would say that she already paid for her crimes with her life.”

Niles had not been deterred in the least. “And what about Raymour? His role in this was never exposed! If I keep this body, I can leave these halls and finally give him the punishment he truly deserves!”

“It’s been fifty years,” Claude said. “If the man ain’t dead now, he will be soon enough.”

“But my reputation! People believe that I was the one responsible for the murders!”

“When we leave here, I’ll spread the word throughout Hyrule,” Zelda tried to assure him. “The people will learn what really happened in the Worthington Manor and who was responsible for it all. My words have a lot of power, so this is something I can guarantee. I promise you this.”

Niles denied all attempts to win him over. “Words mean nothing to me! Only actions! My wife...she said she loved my family and me. We saw how much truth was behind those words!”

“Perhaps you are right,” Marth agreed, and all eyes fell upon him. “It seems that no words can help you with your ordeal. I will have to take this a step further.”

The spirit of Marth leapt forward and entered the body that once belonged to him. Convulsions soon followed, representing the inner struggle of two souls for control of the single body.

Zelda gasped and ran forward to help. Marth lurched forward and screamed, grabbing at his chest plate. It sounded so terrible, there had to be something she could do to ease his suffering!

“Let Marth handle this!” Kirby demanded, blocking her way. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do for him in this state! Just let him do this!”

Marth’s suffering came to an abrupt end when he stood rigid. The conflict was over, and this was made apparent when one of the warring spirits willingly stepped out of the body. The bespectacled, dark haired man stood before them in a black suit. He resembled the man in the picture back in the foyer. This was no doubt the soul of Niles Worthington, and he appeared a little younger than any of them would have imagined. Whether he chose this appearance or this was what he looked like at the time of his murder was anyone’s guess.

Niles knelt down, tears already streaming down his face. “Julia. Dale. Come here.” The children obliged, running into an embrace they longed for, for half a century.

Niles Worthington openly sobbed. These were not the tears of a defeated man, but of a man granted his greatest salvation.

“Is it over?” Captain Falcon asked.

Marth nodded slowly. “When I was...ejected from my own body, the first beings I met were these two children. They explained my situation to me, and then told me of their own plight before eventually helping me reunite with you all.

“When Niles said that our words were not helping him, I took the next logical step. While attempting to reclaim my body, we shared memories. He experienced my new memories, and relived that moment where I first met his children. For him, it was like seeing them for the first time since their murders, as if they had never died. He could deny words, but he could not deny a firsthand experience. My memories were not fabricated.”

The prince ended his explanation there as Zelda hugged him. Despite appearing all right, he still felt the aftereffects of the war for his body, but he did not want to alarm the princess and so he remained silent. He eventually broke it off when he felt the piercing glare of Link. This was a different kind of conflict he didn’t feel like exploring at the moment.

Claude helped Yoshi get back to his feet. “You okay?”

“He got my dress dirty!” Yoshi complained, wiping dust and dirt away from the dress.

“Your dress...?”

“You know what I mean!”

“I really don’t,” Claude said, backing away with a disturbed look.

“I’m sorry,” Niles apologized weakly, holding his children tightly as he gazed at Marth. “All of you. I think I’m ready to accept the terms of reality. I...don’t know what will become of Alana, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I’m back with my family again.” He stood up, holding the hands of his kin.

“Can we go now, dad?” Dale asked impulsively.

“Don’t you want to see your new friends off?”

“Okay...”

“There’s nothing keeping you here anymore,” Niles informed everyone. “You’re free to go. Please, follow me.”

Everyone obliged as the reunited Worthington family led them out of the room; no one had any intention of staying in the manor any longer than they needed to. The tense atmosphere that engulfed the halls and lonely rooms had vanished, as did the redead, but it was still a large, empty mansion occupied by the souls of the deceased. Dimly lit, dead silent, and a little chilly. There were much more comfortable places to be than here.

“I’m afraid that this is where we part ways,” Niles began as they entered the foyer once again. ”I can tell from our brief encounters that you are special people. Each one of you are good...in your own way,” he added, eying Yoshi apprehensively.

“It’s a shame that I’m not alive so that we could become properly acquainted. The burden you’ve lifted from my shoulders...what you’ve done for me, I’m not sure I could ever be able to repay you for in any way.”

“All you have to do is make your children happy and pass on with them,” Samus replied. “That’s the reason behind it all. That’s repayment.” She felt awkward. She wanted to do more to send the family off: a hug, maybe even a handshake, but they were ghosts after all; the gesture would have been pointless, she felt. 

Niles nodded. “This house, it’s been this way because of my unresolved feelings over my death. It’s been preserved in this state ever since. When we leave, this most likely won’t be the case anymore, so I suggest that you also leave quickly.”

Captain Falcon found himself more interested than he had been before. “When you say that, do you mean that it’s going to turn into a broken down house like it should be, or is it going to disappear into thin air?”

Yoshi prodded him sharply in the side. “You wanna stick around to find out?”

“No!” Falcon shook his head frantically.

“Dad, look!” Dale shouted, pointing at an adjacent wall. There was nothing of interest there beyond a couch, but the light reflected in the boy’s eyes told a different tale.

Niles looked on in wonder, his jaw agape. “All of these years I’ve lurked these halls, and never could I see what was right before my eyes.”

The Smashers traded a couple of nervous glances, but the family took a few steps towards what many often referred to as “the light.”

“Come on,” Niles whispered to his children. “I’m sure your mother is waiting for us there.”

Julia looked back with a forlorn expression before breaking contact with her father. She ran over to Young Link, an experience he found surreal as her footsteps made no sound, her movement carried no weight and she was slightly transparent. This only heightened his surprised when she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she told him, smiling. He absently rubbed the side of his face as he watched her run back to her father and brother; despite her being a ghost, he clearly and surely felt her lips pressed on his face for just a brief moment. And that moment was all it took to turn him completely red.

Julia locked hands with her father again and the trio walked towards the wall. They never reached it, for their bodies had dispersed into tiny light fragments, as if they were composed of a hundred fireflies that all took flight at once.

The onlookers watched the light show in silence, each contemplating the outcome of the night’s events. What started as a fun romp through Hyrule’s Poe Festival ended in the resolution of a fifty-year conflict and the reunion of a wronged family. There wasn’t much more to say on the subject. Well, unless you were Yoshi.

“Aww, your only girlfriend and now she’s gone!” he teased the youngest Link.

“At least my girlfriend wasn’t ax crazy!” Young Link retorted, unfazed by Yoshi’s taunting.

“Shyla isn’t my girlfriend!” Yoshi growled.

Young Link smirked. “How did you know I was talking about her?”

“Don’t try to twist this in my face! Who else could you have been talking about?”

Young Link pointed at him accusingly. “At least I’m not wearing a dress!”

“You’re right. You’re wearing something more like a skirt.”

The spat brought liveliness to everyone that had been missing since they entered the old manor. What would usually be considered annoying antics was much welcome after what everyone had been through. The moment was cut short with a freakish change in temperature. A chill took the air in an instant, and a familiar woman appeared smack in the middle of their ranks.

“I guess I should thank you,” came her dull, bored voice.

Zelda narrowed her eyes. “No need. We didn’t do this for you.”

Alana ignored the princess’s tone for the most part. “Either way, I might be gone right now if you hadn’t stopped Niles.”

“Lady, what do you want from us?” Claude asked. “You know this whole thing was your fault.”

“So what, Niles told you everything? Let me guess, this is the part where each one of you lecture me. ‘Oh, how could you do that! He’s you’re husband! You’re supposed to love your family!’ Please, I was surrounded by you preachy types when I was alive. Don’t waste my time!”

Link gave the front door a hard pull and nearly lost his balance due to how easily it opened. He made an ushering gesture as his friends filed out, one by one.

Alana’s expression changed rapidly. “Wait, where are you going?” 

“We’re taking your advice,” Kirby said. “We’re not wasting your time. Or ours. We’re leaving.”

“You’re just going to walk out and leave me in here all alone!?”

“What did you expect? Our job here is done. You can’t hurt the Worthingtons any further,” Samus stated, taking leave without giving the ghost another glance.

“You’re not getting this back!” Yoshi announced, hiking up the dress and strutting past Alana.

A vacant stare occupied Alana’s pale face. The thought of being alone had never occurred to her. She had been hunted down by the spirit of her husband since her own demise, and maybe even secretly enjoyed the chase. But with no one to interact with, she would be left to ponder and accept the fate she carved for herself. That realization racked her soul with more fear than she had ever felt during her time alive.

“What will happen to me?” she whispered.

“Well, only you will find that out,” Zelda replied. She was the last to leave and slowly began closing the door behind her. She saw no reaction from Alana even as her view was reduced to a crack. When the door finally shut with an audible ‘clunk,’ it echoed throughout the corridors of the Worthington home, and for a time it was the only sound heard in those halls. Until...

“What will happen to me?” Alana repeated mournfully.

The fog outdoors choked the lawn of the manor. Too dense to see through, the Smashers had no choice but to stick closely together, following the path by only what little they could see before their feet. That, and nobody wanted to venture too far out just in case Resident Evil-reject Petri was still hanging around and in the mood for chewing limbs off.

Just as they left the grounds, most of the fog was cut off like an invisible wall keeping it restrained from pouring too far out into the world. In fact, this area was clearer than they remembered when they first came here.

“Was it scary?” Iris asked, nearly startling the whole group. The foxes were still huddled on the bench.

“More than you can imagine,” Marth replied. “We are sorry for the delay, but we did run into some...unforeseen circumstances inside of the house.”

“It wasn’t that long,” Fox said, holding Iris tight. “Barely an hour. I wouldn’t complain if you stayed in there longer.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Captain Falcon scratched the side of his helmet with his fake pincers in bafflement. “We were in there for hours!”

Fox rolled his eyes. “I see all that candy skipped your teeth and went straight to rotting your brain. Or what little there was to rot, at least.”

Captain Falcon frowned but didn’t say anything. He was use to the insults.

“Time flows differently in there,” Samus deduced. “That’s interesting...”

Young Link’s face lit up. “If that time discrepancy phenomenon is true, that means we have more time to enjoy the festival!” Everyone knew that by ‘enjoy the festival,’ it most likely meant him wreaking as much havoc as he could.

Iris secured James in the stroller. It was time to find their way back to the festivities. “Time discrepancy? Just what exactly happened in there?” the fox inquired.

“Long story,” Claude told her. It didn’t discourage her, not that he wanted it to.

“Not a problem for me. I don’t like being left out of the loop!”

Even in the cover of night and fog, Fox could make out the dress on Yoshi. “Do I even want to know?”

Yoshi was quick to defend himself. “They made me wear this!”

“No one is making you keep it on,” Samus swiftly pointed out.

“I don’t like stripping down in front of other people.”

Claude gave him a look that was a cross between skepticism and outrage. “You don’t even wear clothes!”

“I’m guessing the dress is part of the story?” Iris asked as they started the trek down the two-way path. “I’m really hoping it is.”

“It was a plan to lure out Marth,” Zelda said, the moment when she and Samus ambushed Yoshi with the dress still vivid. She stifled a laugh as she continued, “Well, not Marth, but the angry soul that stole his body.”

Fox raised his brows at the outlandish premise. “Wait, start from the beginning. Who stole what now?”

“Oh,” Zelda murmured, feeling a bit silly when she realized how that must have sounded to someone that wasn’t there. “When we separated from you, we were locked inside of the mansion...”

“After we were chased inside by the House Pet from Hell,” Samus added on.

“We split up and many peculiar things happened in there,” Zelda said. Seeing the look on Iris’s face, she knew that the vixen wanted all the details she could get. The princess smiled; why not? It was a tale worth telling.

Kirby zoned out as their recent escapades were recited. He glanced back up the path where the Worthington manor stood. The blanket of fog made it impossible to see the house. A sudden chill made him wonder if it was even still there, but new warmth replaced that thought with one of the Worthingtons and their newfound eternal happiness.

He smiled and picked up his pace to keep up with his friends.

The deed was done.


	7. The Puzzle is Complete (EPILOGUE)

“Reuniting a murdered family while enduring the trials of a haunted house. Why do I always miss the cool stuff?” Iris sighed. What she envisioned in her head was a little more fantastic than what actually happened in the manor. Details like chasing after Niles after he grabbed Yoshi transformed into a harrowing trip down a trap-laden hallway, courtesy of her imagination.

Fox had listened to the story and found himself identifying with Niles more than he would have imagined. As they continued their trip down a creepy forest trail in search of civilization once again, he made a bold, sincere confession aloud. “To be honest, I don’t blame the guy. If my son was murdered, I don’t know what I’d do. Well, no, I know what I’d do; I just don’t want to describe it here.”

There was a collective sound of responses, some in agreement and others simply contemplative.

Samus noticed that, despite the spooky atmosphere and recent happenings, Kirby was his old jovial self...maybe more so than normal.

“Judging by that bounce in your step, you seem extra happy.”

Kirby beamed at the bounty huntress. “We solved this problem without having to resort to violence. I feel good!”

Samus always found Kirby’s pacifistic nature to be somewhat naïve, but she could not argue with him on that. He took her silence as agreement.

“I wonder what’s going to happen to that Alana woman,” Iris suddenly wondered aloud.

“Given her predicament, she really only has two choices,” Zelda said. “She can stay as she is and be cursed to walk Hyrule as a wandering spirit for eternity, or she could move onto what I’m pretty sure won’t be a pleasant or welcoming afterlife.”

Iris frowned. The woman certainly brought it on herself, but she still felt that it was a horrible fate to suffer. “So what you’re saying is that she’s screwed.”

“Pretty much,” the princess replied.

“I’d like to think that everyone can find redemption somewhere eventually,” Iris voiced with just a pinch of optimism.

The forest ended, and the trail led down a hill and straight into the festival. Everyone ogled at the dazzling lights and elaborate displays.

“Finally!” Young Link cried, at last having found the other side of the festival they were originally looking for. He led the charge down the hill, followed by Kirby and Captain Falcon. Everyone else was a little more reserved and took their time catching up. They were bathed in light cast by orange lanterns strung up from booth to booth. Cloth hung next to each lantern and was painted with the smiling, pupil-less face of a poe, giving the illusion that they were holding the lanterns.

“Ooooo, look!” Young Link screamed, nearly jumping from excitement. “The zoras are running a dunking game! Falcon, volunteer to get dunked!”

Captain Falcon recoiled at the thought. “Why me?” he whined, watching a middle-aged Hylian man drop into a tank of water after a child struck the bullseye with a rubber ball.

“Motivation,” Fox replied casually. “Everyone is more likely to win if the victim is someone they want to see get dropped into a pool of water.”

“The water will ruin my costume.”

Young Link looked over the Space Pirate ‘costume’ once more. “The good news is that it can’t get any worse than it already is.” 

“Hmph!” Captain Falcon put his pincers on his hips. “If you want to make fun of someone’s outfit, go after Yoshi. He’s still wearing that stupid dress. Dunk him!”

Yoshi felt uncomfortable with all the attention turned on him, and the looks on some of his friends’ faces meant that they were agreeing with Falcon. “Hey, this isn’t about me!”

“Either way, you are taking that ridiculous thing off before the festival is over,” Samus declared, yanking Yoshi by the back of the dress.

“You can’t make me!”

“I can and I will.”

Zelda let out a giggle watching Yoshi fight Samus over the dress while Captain Falcon got pushed against his will towards the dunking game. With her friends enjoying themselves, she decided it was time to uncover some mysteries alone.

“There’s someone I need to see. I’ll be back soon,” Zelda told them.

“Alright. Nobody’s gonna go too far from here before you get back,” Claude said.

Samus nodded in agreement. “We’ll be in the area.”

Zelda began to back away, but Link suddenly gripped her arm. She knew his apprehension of letting her go off alone before she even read it on his face.

“Don’t worry, Link. I’ll be fine.” He reluctantly let go.

Zelda broke off from her friends and headed backwards up the trail, away from the festivities. She had no intention of walking all the way back to her intended destination, after all, that’s what the convenience of magic was for. The princess simply didn’t want to risk damaging any of the booths or setups.

When she was a safe distance away, Zelda summoned the power of Farore and was whisked away by green winds. She touched down on the other side of the festival, in front of a quaint magenta tent: Madam Baker’s Fortunes. A sliver of moonlight illuminated the area, and she released a small sigh as she wondered if she would find the answers that she sought. More puzzling was that she wasn’t entirely sure what questions she was seeking the answers to.

With one motion, she parted the tent’s entrance and stepped inside. Chamomile incense filled her nostrils and she smiled when she noticed that the tent was empty besides herself and Madam Baker. She was not intruding; in fact, it seemed that the old woman was awaiting her presence.

“Come, princess. Sit down. You wish to speak to me again?”

Madam Baker’s shriveled hands pushed the crystal ball away from her and towards the center of the table before her fingers interlaced under the shadow of her violet shawl.

Zelda held her dress in place and sat on a velvet pillow – the same seat she occupied earlier that night. It was a few moments before she could bring herself to speak; her thoughts were strangely muddled now that she was meeting with the fortuneteller.

“Yoshi said that he thought you told us to avoid the house so that we would ignore you and go inside anyway. Did you...have any idea what was going on in there, or the tragic history of that manor?” Once the words left her mouth, she realized that those questions weren’t really what was bothering her, but starting the conversation would most likely lead her to a substantial truth that would satisfy her inquiries.

The old woman leaned forward. “My warning was sincere. I could feel the hate in that house, but I also knew that you were special people. I foresaw the troubles you would experience if you entered but I did not see an end to it. I did not know that you would end the conflict that plagued that house for almost half a century. Your group of friends is more gifted than I realized.” Madam Baker leaned back and let her hands rest upon the table. “You did what I never had the courage to do.”

“I don’t understand. What connection did you have to the Worthington Manor?”

Madam Baker fell silent and made no motion. Yoshi’s words from earlier in the day echoed in Zelda’s mind as she waited.

Did she just fall asleep!?

No, that’s ridiculous, Zelda thought. Madam Baker quickly stirred once again.

“Raymour was my cousin.”

Zelda fell silent. She wasn’t expecting that answer, but for Madam Baker to reveal a secret like that, there must have been more to the story than she realized.

“A few weeks after the murders, I came to visit my cousin, to see what he had decided to do with his life now that the family he had faithfully worked for had been killed. I came across him packing hastily. He hinted that he had come into some money, and decided that he would leave Hyrule and move to Labrynna.”

Zelda was almost afraid to ask, “Did you know what he had done?”

“I was not a dull girl. I put two and two together, but I couldn’t summon the courage to confront him about it. Instead, I told no one.”

“It must have been hard for you to carry that knowledge while your cousin was free to do as he pleased, after what he and Alana had done to the Worthingtons.”

“I actually didn’t have to keep his secret for him for too long. It’s strange, but on the day that he was to leave, I visited him one last time. And that’s when I discovered his body. The conclusion of the investigation was that he was mauled to death by a monster with a vile tongue, possibly canine in nature, but they could not tie it to any creature that exists in Hyrule so the case was never truly solved.”

Zelda gazed off into the distance as she imagined the scene in her mind. From that description, she had a pretty good idea of what was responsible for Raymour’s death, because she and her friends narrowly escaped it on the Worthington lawn. She wasn’t entirely sure if Madam Baker knew that or not, or the extent of her powers of precognition, and wondered if she should speak on that matter.

But there was something else she felt was more important to say.

“So you found the money and kept it...”

“Think of me what you will, but I used that money to support myself and my family,” Madam Baker snapped in defense, her tired voice rising above a whisper for the first time. “We still led simple lives, but without the pressure of financial burdens, I was able to use my time to harness and hone the supernatural abilities that have long since been common in my bloodline. You can say that my fortunes are...a small atonement for what Raymour did, and a way to lead those with uncertain futures away from a similar path of destruction.”

“You...I won’t judge you. It’s not my place. I have my beliefs and morals, but I won’t bludgeon you with them,” Zelda admitted. She felt strongly about that revelation, but nothing she said now would change anything. “However, I made a promise to Niles Worthington. I promised him that I would tell all of Hyrule the truth behind the Worthington murders. If people discover your connection to the true history of that house, they may become hostile towards you.”

“So be it. I did not need my gifts to foresee such a day.” Madam Baker reached out for the crystal ball and drew it back towards her before she said, “It seems that you are not completely satisfied.”

The mild frustration on the princess’s face melted a little. “I guess what I’m really wondering is how such an injustice like this could continue for so long without being resolved. This is my land. I am the princess of Hyrule. I should have known about this. I shouldn’t have come across the Worthingtons’ plight by chance during a Poe Festival...”

“Ah, but princess, no one can see everything, even I who can see glimmers of what has yet to pass. As a tradeoff for this power, I am incapable of seeing my own future.”

“I know it’s unrealistic to think that I can stop all dreadful things from happening, but I still feel this way.”

“As long as you set right what went wrong, you are well on your way.”

“This is true. The Worthingtons are happy now.” Zelda stood from her seat, feeling much better about the situation. “I guess it’s time to draw their story to a close.” She fished for rupees in a hidden pocket of her dress until Madam Baker declined.

“No charge, this was simply a friendly chat. But a word of advice for you and your friends, princess: the green one will bring plight to you all if you don’t keep him under control.”

“Yoshi? When does he not cause trouble?” Zelda murmured. “Goodnight, Madam Baker.” The soothsayer nodded as the princess stepped out of the tent, and a few seconds later, the veil that was the tent’s entrance flapped inside from a strong gust of wind.

When Zelda returned to the festival, she found Yoshi sitting on a bench with James and his stroller in front of him. Next to him on the bench was the white dress folded neatly. The dino’s arms were crossed and he aimed a particularly sour scowl at the ground. It seemed that the dress had been removed by force, and he wasn’t happy about it.

“I feel violated,” Yoshi muttered without prompt. “And maybe a little confused. Where did you go anyway?”

“I went to get some questions about the Worthington manor answered,” Zelda replied, rubbing James under his chin. The fox cub closed his eyes and smiled from her touch.

Yoshi sniffed the air and narrowed his eyes. “I know where you were. I can smell that cheap incense all over you.”

Zelda sighed. “Don’t start.”

“Fine. I don’t want to talk about her anyway.”

Captain Falcon trudged noisily over to the bench, and under the light of the lanterns, Zelda saw that he was completely drenched. His racer suit was fine, but what remained of his Space Pirate costume was beyond salvaging. His footsteps were noisy due to water sloshing out of his boots with each step.

“Looks like I missed the fun,” Zelda said, summoning a small ball of heat. Falcon put his hands up to it just as part of his pincer detached and swung, hanging on by a single piece of tape. He didn’t look any happier than Yoshi.

“I told them I didn’t want to do the dunking game,” he muttered unhappily. “Aaarrgh. I can’t even say that because I’m not a Space Pirate anymore.”

“Where is everyone anyway?”

“Remember the haunted house we were trying to find in the first place?” He turned around and pointed over the stands to a hill behind the festivities where a lone building sat upon it. “They went there, to the real haunted house. Well, not the real one, the fake one, we went into a real one. That’s really the one we wanted to go to. I think. I’m so confused!”

“It looks like a shack,” she said, though she hoped her eyes were playing tricks on her. “Why didn’t you go?” 

“I didn’t want to go in looking like this. And Yoshi is still mourning the dress.”

“That’s ridiculous! I’m not mourning the dress!” Yoshi shouted, though he never took his eyes off of the garment when he said it.

“I hope it’s more impressive on the inside,” Zelda mentioned, still eying the house on the hill.

“It’s not,” Young Link stated flatly as he and the others rounded a few booths and joined them at the benches.

Marth rested a hand on hilt of the Falchion. “Having experienced the haunted house attraction for myself, I find that I am still puzzled as to why anyone would find this entertaining.”

“That’s because it sucked!” Young Link pointed out. “Three rooms, and they were all lame! The costumes were worse than yours!” He tapped Captain Falcon and the flailing pincer piece finally hit the ground.

“The one kid dressed as a poe tripped over his own sheet trying to lunge at us,” Fox recalled. “It took a lot of willpower not to laugh in his face.” At least the thought put a smile on his muzzle.

Iris was also smiling as she made her way over to James. It was actually pretty rare not to see her smiling, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. “I don’t know, I had some fun. Maybe ten seconds of fun, but it was still fun!”

“I hate to admit it, but I had more fun in the actual haunted house,” Kirby said.

Claude sighed. “I thought the haunted houses here would be better than the ones back home, but nope!”

Yoshi perked up, his mind finally off of the dress. There was an opening and he had to strike. “Why don’t you prove it then, Claude?”

“What are you talkin’ about?”

“If the haunted houses on Earth are so much better than the ones here, why don’t you take us there and prove it?” He challenged in an oh-so-snobbish manner.

Claude wore an incredulous grin. “Take you to Earth?” His grin grew broader. “Me, take all of you to my home world?” He repeated in skeptical amusement.

“Is there a problem?”

“We went over this before. Ain’t no way in he...wait. Wait a minute.” Claude grinned again. This one was a hopeful, mischievous grin all in one.

“Spill it,” Fox said quickly.

“Halloween is in two weeks back home,” Claude told them. “With all the people in costumes, maybe everybody can blend right in.”

Samus couldn’t believe it. “You’re not seriously considering it? We’re not exactly misbehaved, but a lot can go wrong in that scenario.”

“I think if we all work really hard to keep our true identities a secret, this will be an immeasurable experience,” Zelda said. She didn’t show it, but deep down inside she was quite excited by the idea. She liked visiting new worlds, and hearing so much about Earth over time but never visiting it made this the perfect opportunity.

“I agree!” Iris yelled, her excitement not quite as contained as the princess’s. She always made a point of learning about Earth from Claude, but actually going there was something she wasn’t going to let slip by.

Marth kept a straight face, “I must confess that my curiosity is piqued.”

“I think we can pull this off,” Claude said. “Spread the word. But not to too many people; this ain’t no field trip.”

“Will do!” Kirby replied with a salute.

“So guys, wanna to make one more round of the festivities before we call it a night?” Iris asked, moving James’ stroller away from the bench.

“Sure!” Kirby and Young Link cried in unison.

As they headed back towards the booths, Samus found herself suddenly annoyed. “There’s just one thing I have to take care of first,” she said. She snatched the folded white dress from under Yoshi’s arm and tossed it on the ground. Without warning, she opened fire – a searing beam of plasma set the dress ablaze. Patrons of the festival looked on, wondering if it was a show.

Yoshi dropped to his knees before the embers and let out a wretched, wretched scream. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!!”

 

~END

 

© 2009-2010 ClaudeLv250  
Super Smash Bros. © Nintendo


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